The Slide Factor
by classchic1
Summary: On a world that's in the middle of a world war and that's about to be killed by the radiation of a pulsar, the sliders are wrongly accused of a crime that they didn't commit. Will the sliders from Earth Prime be able to slide out of this earth in time? Will they die in a labor camp? Or will an unlikely ally help them? Read and find out! (FYI, rating will change for some chapters!)
1. Chapter 1

**Rating:** PG (rating will change for later chapters)

**Warning:** none YET

**Disclaimer:** All television shows, movies, books, and other copyright material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. I only own my original characters.

**Authors Note:** FYI, this same fic can be found on my Ao3 account (under the same story name and username) but on that site there's pics to go along with the story! Anyhow, please R/R!

* * *

_What if you found a portal to parallel universes? _

_What if you slide to a thousand different worlds?_

_Where it's the same year and that you're the same person. _

_But everything else is different. _

_And what if you can't find your way home..._

On the current world, the four sliders found themselves running for their lives once again. They were currently being chased by the primitive inhabitants of this earth because of how they're dressed. The normal attire of this earth are simple animal skins and that anything else, especially of a different design, is seen as disrespectful to their gods.

As the panting sliders ducked behind numerous trees, they were all thankful to see the dial read "00:05:00"; however, once the time came to open the portal there was a problem. It wouldn't open.

"Come on Quinn. Come on!" Wade exclaimed as she looked over her shoulder with fear in her eyes.

Quinn was pressing buttons frantically as he tried to get it to obey his command. His fear and frustration had him finally hit the side of the timer and it finally displayed its red LED lights.

"FINALLY!" Quinn cried as the portal swirled to life with its cacophony of bright colors. Once the wormhole was finally large enough, Wade was the first to jump. The Professor then followed closely behind. Then Rembrandt jumped in after the hefty Englishman. And finally, Quinn jumped in with no time to spare because as he jumped in and the portal closed a fast oncoming spear was aimed right for him.

**..:TBC:..**


	2. Chapter 2

**Rating:** PG (rating will change for later chapters)

**Warning:** This story is NOT for Maggie Beckett fans!

**Disclaimer:** All television shows, movies, books, and other copyright material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. I only own my original characters.

**Authors Note:** Yippee! Another story! (Hm, that rhymed...) Anyway, this same fic can be found on my Ao3 account (under the same story name and username) but on that site there's pics to go along with the story! Anyhow, please R/R!

* * *

In a dirty and war torn Golden Gate Park, a swirling blue vortex opened and four weary travelers shot out of the wide opening and landed in a dog pile. These travelers are Quinn Mallory, Wade Wells, Rembrandt Brown, and Professor Arturo.

"Would you lot get the bloody hell off of me?" Professor Arturo growled from his position at the bottom of the heap. The hefty English academian grunted in relief and frustration as his sliding companion rolled off of him and at the same time chuckled at his expense.

"Well this is definitely not home," Rembrandt said as he looked around the park. The funny moment was dashed as the others looked around to see what the favorite singer could mean by his comment. The usual beautiful Golden Gate Park with its lush grassy ground they were used to, was replaced with a war torn and litter was everywhere.

But what really terrified them was the sky color. Due to the heavy pollution, the sky was an ominous blood red color.

"What's happened here?" shuddered Wade as she linked her arm through the Professor's thick coat clad arm. "Well whatever's happened here, let's not bring attention to ourselves." Everyone agreed and then made their way out of the dirty park.

As they walked, Rembrandt asked, "By the way Q-Ball, how long are we going to be here in Gotham?" Quinn smirked at the joke as he fished the timer from his coat pocket. "Man, we're going to be here for a month," huffed Quinn. "But where ever we are, we gotta really stay out of trouble. Because something's really wrong with the timer and we can't open it when we want to. It really needs a prolonged rest."

"Agreed Mr. Mallory and seeing as how we're here for a month it seems like there is menial labor is in order for us all."

"Well before all of that, let's get some food," said Rembrandt.

"That's a splendid idea Mr. Brown!" Arturo exclaimed as the two older men walked ahead. Quinn and Wade simply shrugged with an amused smile on their faces before they too jogged to catch up with them.

**_~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~_**

As the four sliders walked into the smallish restaurant and were seated, they didn't notice that they were being watched by a mysterious uniform figure and his partner across the room.

Soon though, the sliders food arrived. Due to the menu was foreign to them, they ordered four orders of fried rice. But just as they picked up their forks and started to eat, a strong hand clamped down on Quinn's shoulder.

Quinn and the others looked up to see that they were surrounded by at least six cops. "Already?!" whispered Rembrandt in disbelief.

Wade started to look around at the other patrons and saw that the people there had all stopped eating and were looking at the four of them with much disdain.

Quinn audibly gulped down his rice and asked, "Is there a problem officer?"

"Is there a problem? Hey guys did you hear that? The kid wants to know what the problem is," said a thin but obviously athletically built pale man with purpleish black hair and green eyes.

"I can't believe it either Tahno. I didn't know people were this dumb. Especially in this day 'n age," said another well-built man with a tan complexion and harsh grey eyes and black hair.

"Tahno, Ming. Shut up. Cuff them and hall them out of here," commanded the obvious leader of the group. This tanned man was also athletically built and had a huge horrible and ugly burn scar across his face. But there was something dangerous about him. This man had his brown hair tied in a pony-tail and cruel blue eyes peering down at them.

"Yes Sgt. Amon," both Ming and Tahno said simultaneously.

As the sliders were standing and being cuffed and searched, Arturo asked in his most polite and nonthreatening tone of voice, "Excuse me Sir. What have we done?"

"Don't start Fat Boy. You all know that eating off of forks is crude in public. And that's not to mention you all ordered alcohol after 3pm. What did you think we were just going to sit by?" mocked Ming.

"Oh wait! What's this?" asked Tahno as he pulled the timer from Quinn's pocket.

"That's ours!" exclaimed Wade as she struggled against her restraints.

"I can see that," Tahno mocked before eyeing the timer and then sniffed it.

"What is it?" asked Sgt. Amon.

Before Quinn could answer with a lie, Tahno said, "I smell drugs. Looks like you're all going down for drug possession too!"

"Drugs! There are no drugs in there you blistering idiot!" bellowed Arturo but then he was suddenly silenced by Amon. Amon had reached out behind the professor's neck and applied enough pressure to knock the man unconscious.

At seeing their friend's prone form now being held up by two really strong officers, the three sliders looked on in horror and disbelief. Then Amon had a gun leveled at Arturo's head.

"Look Sgt. Amon…we're not from here. I can promise you sir that there isn't any drugs in our device," said Rembrandt.

Amon leveled them all with a look that could kill. Then in a cold and calculating voice, Amon said, "That's what everyone says. But at the end of the day you're all the same scum. Although, let me warn you that when I do find drugs in your device. I'll gladly cleanse and kill you all personally," Amon said then he turned to leave but stopped at the sound of Quinn voice.

"You can't do this! We're human just like you. Who do you think you are?"

Amon turned half way to look at the tall young stranger and said with a sick smile on his face and said, "I'm the solution." Then he looked at his officers and jerked his head toward the door and left.

The officers roughly shoved the three sliders, and dragged Arturo's unconscious body, out of the restaurant and into a caged paddy wagon.

As the door clanged shut an ominous silence descended upon them about what unknown evil awaited them.

**..:TBC:..**


	3. Chapter 3

**Rating:** PG (rating will change for later chapters)

**Warning:** This story is NOT for Maggie Beckett fans!

**Disclaimer:** All television shows, movies, books, and other copyright material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. I only own my original characters.

**Authors Note:** As you guys know, this same fic can be found on my Ao3 account (under the same story name and username) but on that site there's pics to go along with the story! Anyhow, please R/R!

* * *

In a jailhouse across town, the sun's rays were filtering through the barred windows. Despite the sunlight, inside the prison was relatively dark. Along with its depressing scenery, the smell of body odor and vomit was a putrefying mixture as it wafted through the entire facility.

In one particular cell sat the three sliders.

And for the past three days this was the Sliders home. They were all dressed in a navy blue jailhouse denim.

Currently, the sliders were still in their jail cell. Quinn was leaning against the cell door, Rembrandt was pacing, Wade was sitting cross legged on her top bunk, and across the room Arturo was still asleep on his bottom bunk.

But then a loud voice carried from down the corridor.

"Arturo, Brown, Mallory, Welles! Get up and let's go. Your lawyer's finally here," yelled a guard. Everyone but Arturo heard him. "I didn't know the professor was such a hard sleeper," whispered Quinn to Rembrandt as Wade jumped down from her bunk and crossed the cell then she began to pat the older man's large middle until he awoke.

About few minutes later, the sliders were sitting at a table behind bars shackled and not long after a guard opened the bared door and let an attractive black woman holding a folder inside. Once the door clanged shut and he left, the woman identified herself.

"Hello. I'm Naomi LaLache, your public defender."

The four greeted her as she took a seat across from them. "So I have your file here and it says that you all were arrested for crude remarks and drugs in public."

"That's not completely true," said Wade. "Did you or did you not buy alcohol after 3pm?" "Well yes but…" said Quinn but was interrupted by Naomi.

"And did you or did you not make crude gestures, eating off of forks, in public?" "Well we didn't know it was crude!" exclaimed Rembrandt.

Naomi raised an unimpressed eyebrow and continued, "And did you not have drugs hidden in a strange device?"

"NO!" they all exclaimed simultaneously.

This got the public defenders attention. "Alright. If that's not true then tell me your story. The whole story. Including what that strange device was."

The Sliders looked at each other for a moment before Arturo said wearily, "Madam it's a long story. One that I don't think you'd quite believe."

"Look Mr. Arturo, the more I know about your situation the better I can defend y'all."

The sliders took a collective breath before Quinn took over and told her the whole story. Starting with him creating a sliding machine, how Rembrandt got taken with them, how they're now lost trying to find home, and when they came here they obviously didn't know what customs were crude. Also, they did not have any drugs. "And we don't do drugs and we would never store it in the timer-which is the strange device that you called it. Without that device we can't get home."

All the while, Naomi was attentively listening as she was taking notes and showing no facial expressions as to whether or not she believed them.

As she was taking her notes, Arturo couldn't help but study her. Naomi had a quiet eloquence about her that complemented her beautiful features. The physics professor took in her smooth silky cinnamon brown complexion with its golden undertones, her deep brown eyes, and her golden brown hair that was placed up in a nice professional bun with a few strands that escaped and framed either side of her high cheek bones.

"So basically, you expect me to believe that due to a science project, that got really out of hand, you're lost and came here by accident. And because of this accident, you didn't know about our laws and ended up breaking them. Am I correct?" Naomi said as she regarded them all with a stern expression. They glumly nodded.

"And this is definitely the story you all are sticking with?"

They glumly nodded.

Naomi took a deep sigh before saying, "Well people. I'm not going to lie to you all. This is going to be very hard. Especially with your story…"

"So what's going to happen?"

Naomi was quiet for a moment before saying, "My plan is to use portions of your story and weave it in such a way that helps us instead of hinder us. You being foreigners is going to be essential."

"Will that work?"

"We're going to find out. And in the meantime, I'm going to talk to the arresting officer and see what he has to say about the drug charges. Maybe there's something he's left out of the file."

"Yes perhaps it's the fact that we didn't have any sort of drugs on our person," growled Arturo.

At his remark, Naomi turned her focus on him. "Now that we have the ground work of a defense, let's discuss payment."

"Payment? What are you talkin' about? I thought you were our public defender." asked Rembrandt.

"Right," drawled Naomi with a strange look on her face, "I forgot. You're from Mars."

"Not Mars just another dimension."

"Sorry other dimension. Well here on this earth, public defenders are still paid by their clients."

"What happens when the client can't pay? Because we don't have any money to pay you," Wade said.

Naomi sat in silence with a contemplative expression across her face before abruptly standing up. "Look. Let's discuss some kind of payment or barter once you get out. Sound reasonable?"

The sliders simply nodded.

"I'll be in touch to let."

**_~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~_**

The next day, the sliders found themselves back in the jail conference room. The room was filled with an anxious air.

Although none of them spoke out loud, they were all dreading the news that their lawyer was bringing. None of them were expecting a good outcome.

Thankfully they didn't have to wait very long. Because about fifteen minutes into the wait, Naomi was being let into the conference cell.

And judging by her frown, as she sat down, the sliders knew they were right about a bad outcome.

"Look under the circumstances, I have a deal for you." Naomi says as she pulls out a couple sheets of paper but places them on the table and rests her hand on top of them. "Due to the crimes that were committed I must advice you to plead guilty for publicly committing a crude act and attempted purchase of alcohol in the late afternoon."

"But we didn't know!" exclaimed Wade. The others were about to follow Wade's lead but a silencing hand from Naomi stopped them dead in their tracks.

"Ignorance of the law is not a viable defense. Now if you want the best outcome you're going to want to let me finish," sternly said Naomi.

With that little bit of hope shining through, they nodded while Arturo motioned for the lawyer to continue.

"As I was saying, the deal is for you to plead guilty and serve a minimum sentence of three months in our city's labor camp. With this deal the drug charges against you will be dropped. If you do not take this deal, the drug charges will not be dropped and you will be put to death by beheading within two days of your sentence. Regardless of the world war, possession of drugs is a huge crime here. Are there any questions?"

The sliders were dumbstruck at the mess they were currently in and didn't know how to respond.

Naomi took this opportunity to slide some stapled papers, which were previously under her hands, to the person sitting directly across from her: Arturo.

"Here. You do have a right to read your full deal in its totality and on the back y'all be able to find a payment method I've come up with. I'd advise you to read it carefully. So with that said, I don't have another client for another two hours so please let me know if you have any questions."

Arturo was about to retort but the paper in his hands stopped him in his tracks. On the front of the page it said: 'DON'T READ THIS ALOUD. DON'T MAKE ANY CERTAIN EXPRESSIONS. INSIDE IS YOUR REAL DEAL AGREEMENT.'

Arturo's eyes widened slightly in surprise then opened the next page. 'I'VE NOT EVER DONE THIS BEFORE. BUT I KNOW THIS IS WORTH IT. LIKE I SAID BEFORE, TO STAY ALIVE YOU HAVE TO PLEAD GUILTY AND YOU WILL BE SENT TO A LABOR CAMP; HOWEVER, WHEN YOU ARRIVE THERE YOU WILL BE IN CONTACT WITH A MAN THAT GOES BY SKURGE. AFTER THREE OR FOUR DAYS AT THE LABOR CAMP, SKURGE WILL STAGE A DIVERSION OF SOME SORT AND YOU ALL, WITH SEVERAL OTHERS, WILL FLEE WITH SKURGE TO A SAFE HAVEN. I WILL MEET YOU THERE FOR A BARTERING ARRANGEMENT.

ONCE AGAIN IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU SHOW **NO** EMOTION AFTER READING THIS. THERE ARE PEOPLE WATCHING AND LISTENING!

FURTHERMORE, **DO NOT** DISCUSS THIS DEAL WITH ANYONE. ALL OF OUR LIVES ARE ON THE LINE.'

Arturo looked up from the pages he has just read and passes it to Quinn on his right before saying, "Alright counselor. We'll accept your deal."

"Great. Once everyone's read it fully I'll go talk to the prosecutor."

**_~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~_**

A few days later, the sliders were sitting at the defense table listening to Naomi as she spoke to the judge about the deal that she had made on their behalf with the prosecutor.

As she stood and confirmed their deal, Arturo once again found himself unintentionally admiring the woman that stood beside their table.

The woman that stood before the court today was, in short, a warrior. In her simple attire, he could clearly see that she fought against injustice with everything that was within her.

Naomi completely commanded the room with her self-confidence and her stern gaze never wavered from the judge.

"Councilor why did Officer Tahno recant his findings of drugs?" asked the judge, snapping Arturo out of his riviera.

"He said that it was a mistake, Your Honor," said Naomi in a strong voice.

The Judge shook his bald head disapprovingly.

"I understand that we are in the middle of a world war but these kinds of mistakes aren't acceptable."

Then the judge regarded the prosecutor, "And the deal Counselor LaLache has brought forth is completely acceptable to your office?"

"Yes Your Honor."

"Alright. I here by sentence the accused to three months of hard labor in our city's labor camp. It is so ordered," the judge said as his gavel came down.

With that ruling the judge went back to his chambers for a ten minute recess, the prosecutor left the room, and a few court officers came to escort the sliders out of the court. But before they left, Naomi gave them a smile and said, "Behave yourselves."

With a final nod, the sliders were taken away.

**..:TBC:..**

* * *

FANCAST: Naomi LaLache is played by Margaret Avery!


	4. Chapter 4

**Rating:** PG-13 (for the mentions of adult themes and blood and fighting)

**Warning:** This chapter contains a brief mention of attempted rape and LOTS of blood. If this is a trigger for some please wait for the next chapter to be uploaded. Again, this story is NOT for Maggie Beckett fans!

**Disclaimer:** All television shows, movies, books, and other copyright material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. I only own my original characters.

**Author's Note: **Here's the soundtrack for the story (the scenes will be marked with two ******):

1\. Inti Illimani - El Pueblo Unido (SCENE: "El Pueblo Unido")

2\. 21:16 of "EL OLIMPO DE LOS DIOSES"- Suite for Symphony Orchestra - Oscar Navarro (SCENE: "The mine was hot and poorly lit.")

3\. Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the King OST - Blood and Guts (closing credits) (SCENE: "Now this is what happens to thieves here within the camp,")

4\. Star Wars Dies Irae -uploaded by House 13 (SCENE: "It didn't take long for the inmates to rally behind Martin")

* * *

As the sliders arrived at the camp, they were immediately ushered out of the crowded bus and into a line of many different people.

Being the tallest of their group, Quinn could see that they were shuffling through a walled area. The walls looked to be made from concrete and was at least sixty feet tall, topped with barbed wire, and went around the entire perimeter. The further along the came in the line, Quinn and the others could clearly see a large treacherous looking mountain sat within the camp. They could see some people coming in and out of the mountain pushing carts filled with rocks.

As the sliders came to the front, they saw that there were six men sitting at a desk. On the desk were piles of papers and one large map of the camp.

Being ahead of the others, Arturo was the first in their group to come up to one of the men at the desk. "Last Name."

"Arturo."

The seated man wrote it down and gave the shackled professor a card with a location and number on it. "Arturo you're going to be working in welding. That's Sector Ten. This man to my right will give you your uniforms and brief you on what's going to be expected of you during your incarceration. Next!"

Quinn came followed behind.

"Last Name."

"Mallory."

Repeating what he did before, the man at the desk gave Quinn a card with a location and number on it.

"Mallory you're going to be working in the mine. That's Sector One Hundred and Four. This man to my right will give you your uniforms and brief you on what's going to be expected of you during your incarceration. Next!"

Rembrandt followed behind Quinn.

"Last Name."

"Brown."

As he did before, the man handed Rembrandt a card with a location and number on it.

"Brown you're going to be working in the mine. That's Sector One Hundred and Four. This man to my right will give you your uniforms and brief you on what's going to be expected of you during your incarceration. Next!"

The last of the sliders came behind Rembrandt.

"Last Name."

"Welles."

Like he did three time before with the sliders, the man handed Wade a card with a location and number on it.

"Welles you're going to be working in uniform repair. That's Sector Fifty. This man to my right will give you your uniforms and brief you on what's going to be expected of you during your incarceration. Next!"

As they moved further into the camp, they were instructed to go into a cabin and change. Once they did, they were escorted to a platform that stood in the middle of the camp.

As the sliders stood in the mist of all of the workers, the warden spoke in a quiet yet commanding tone on his pistol grip loud speaker. The warden was a balding and clean shaven man was of average height with piercing blue eyes that shone through behind his steel-rimmed glasses. Over his right eye though was a long meaning scar. Like the guards around him, the warden was clad in a grey uniform and on his chest was a Manticore within a blood red crest.

"Welcome," greeted the warden, "As you all know, this is the San Francisco Labor Camp. It's obvious that you're all here because in some way, shape, or form you've all broken the law. But this doesn't have to be a harsh punishment for you. If you work hard and with diligence you may be able to earn a few extra rations in your dinner. But if you disregard you work or if you are neglectful in you work, there will be painful and long lasting repercussions. Am I understood?"

The collective body of people all said, "Yes Warden."

With that understanding, the warden left and another guard took the loud speaker and instructed the new workers to their stations for the remainder of the day. And like that, the sliders were separated to begin their work.

By the end of the day, the sliders finished their first, albeit half, day's work they met up and walked over collectively to their cabin to get some sleep. But as they walked, Wade looked up at the blackness of the night sky as was met with bright shining stars. The view was relaxing the young woman's frazzled nerves and then all too soon, they had reached their cabin.

Within their new sleeping quarters, were just dirty mats on the floor with dusty old sheets on top of them. Due to their exhaustion, the sliders didn't complain and laid their bodies down for the night. But just as they were about to drift off into a dreamless rest, some voices could be heard from a far distance. A distance they all guessed to be beyond the camp. But despite the distance, the collective voices could be heard singing.

The singing brought smiles to the sliders as they listened to the uplifting song. The song unintentionally lulled the sliders into a restful sleep.

_ El pueblo unido jamás será vencido,_ ******

_el pueblo unido jamás será vencido..._

_De pie, cantar_

_que vamos a triunfar._

_Avanzan ya banderas de unidad._

_Y tú vendrás marchando junto a mí_

_y así verás tu canto y tu bandera florecer,_

_la luz de un rojo amanecer_

_anuncia ya la vida que vendrá._

_ De pie, luchar el pueblo va a triunfar. _

_Será major la vida que vendrá_

_a conquistar nuestra felicidad_

_y en un clamor mil voces de combate se alzarán_

_dirán canción de libertad_

_con decision la patria vencerá._

_ Y ahora el pueblo _

_que se alza en la lucha con voz de gigante_

_gritando: ¡adelante!_

_ El pueblo unido jamás será vencido, _

_el pueblo unido jamás será vencido..._

_ La patria está forjando la unidad _

_de norte a sur se movilizará_

_desde el salar ardiente y mineral_

_al bosque austral_

_unidos en la lucha y el trabajo irán_

_la patria cubrirán, su paso ya_

_anuncia el porvenir._

_ De pie, cantar el pueblo va a triunfar _

_millones ya, imponen la verdad,_

_de acero son ardiente batallón_

_sus manos van_

_llevando la justicia y la razón mujer_

_con fuego y con valor ya estás aquí_

_ junto al trabajador. _

_**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**_

The next couple of days were rough for the sliders. Within those couple of days, the sliders were yelled at, hit, and spit upon. The work was grueling and the breaks were nonexistent. The times to eat were also, few and far between. The food was small rations of corn and two slices of bread served with brown water. But like everyone, the sliders found themselves too hungry and exhausted to complain.

The one saving grace for at least two of the sliders, was that Quinn and Rembrandt were working the mine together. Although they were grateful to have each other's company, it still was a struggle to work in the harsh environment.

The mine was hot and poorly lit.****** The only thing that helped keep the workers focus was that the rhythm of the picks striking the wall played in an interesting syncopated rhythm to the welders a few yards away who clanged their hammers in an ostinato fashion.

But even the funky organic rhythm wasn't enough to keep Quinn from exhaustion. Quinn had swung his pick away at the walls for hours on end; however, the exertion became too much for the young man after a while. Eventually, Quinn's vision became spotted and he dropped heavily to the ground.

Rembrandt, wiping the sweat off of his brow, came over and tried to cox Quinn backup. "Come on Q-Ball. You gotta get up."

Quinn sluggishly nodded but just as he was about to get up a guard came over.

"What's going on here?" the guard asked as he loomed over Quinn belligerently.

"I'm sorry sir. Was just catching my breath," Quinn said as he pushed himself off of the ground with the help of Rembrandt.

But before he could fully stand, the guard grabbed Quinn roughly by his throat and then shoved him into the rocky mine wall.

"Look scum, you don't stop or breath until you're told. Now Get Back to Work!" screamed the guard. Then spontaneously, the guard hit the young genius in the face with such force Quinn saw spots for more than a few seconds.

With a smirk of satisfaction, the guard left the mine. As the guard left, Rembrandt rushed over to Quinn and helped the younger man stand.

"You all right Q-Ball?"

"Depends on your definition of 'fine'," Quinn retorted more harshly than he intended. But Rembrandt didn't take any offense and sympathetically pat the young genius on the shoulder before helping him get back to work.

A few hours later, the dinner bell rung and everyone dropped their tools and began to filter out of the mine.

As they existed the mine for dinner, they were met by Wade.

"Hey sweetheart. You ready for dinner?" asked Rembrandt as he squinted his eyes due to the harsh sunlight.

"More than ever before! Where's the professor?"

"He's got a few minutes left. We were just going to go see him."

"Well then what're we waiting for? Let's go," said Wade as she made her way to welding cave. The others followed close behind until they came to the sector Arturo was working.

There in the welding cave stood a soot covered Arturo dressed in a dirty brown apron with a dirtier brown long sleeved shirt. They were just in time to see the large physicist pick up a large rock with sheer brute strength and place it on a table. Which in turn surprised the others who were welding because the size of the rock would generally need five strong young men to pick up it. But thanks to New Wakanda's improvements, the professor was physically the strongest out of their group.

"Hey Professor, are you ready to eat?"

"Oh I'm more than ready Ms. Welles."

Soon the four were served their rations for the day and as they were seated at a secluded table they had a quiet conversation amongst each other.

"We've been here for several days now. When are we supposed to meet this 'Skurge'?" asked Rembrandt.

"I don't know. But the last time we saw the timer it read that we had just a little over a month here," answered Quinn.

Wade then asked, "Do you think our lawyer set us up?"

Arturo looked thoughtful before shaking his head. "No, I don't think so. But there must be some sort of delay…" But then a frantic scream broke up their conversation. Allowing their curiosity get the better of them, the sliders got up from their table and went to investigate.

As the sliders left the mess tent, a horrendous spectacle was displayed right before their eyes. There were two women and a little boy standing on a platform with several guards surrounding. They were all dressed in rags like the rest of them within the camp but they're garments had specks of blood clearly spattered on them.

"Now everyone! These three prisoners have tried to take more than their fair share of the food rations. And then resisted the officers who caught them!" said the warden on the loud speaker.

The little boy who was on the platform then made eye contact with Wade. His eyes glittered with fear and help. With the intense desperation in the boy's eyes, Wade felt fear and sickness fill her stomach.

Then she felt something grab her hand. Wade saw that it was Rembrandt who looked at her with a sad expression. Wade looked across the musician, she saw that Quinn had the same expression. But she noticed that the professor had a look of pure rage and hatred spread across his face.

"Now this is what happens to thieves here within the camp," said the warden as he motioned for the guards to start the punishments.******

With the command given, the guards flicked their hands and then fire appeared within the palms of their hands. Then each of the guards proceeded to grab the prisoners on the platform and burned them on their faces and arms for ten minutes.

During the ordeal, Wade chocked down a sob that threatened to burst through her throat and closed her eyes to not watch the living nightmare that was going on before them.

Once the torture was over, the guards dropped the prisoners and their bodies hit the floor of platform with a loud thud. The crowd could see that one of the women died due to the excruciating pain and the remaining two would still screaming and crying from their wounds.

"Now let this be a lesson to all of you: don't steal. Because when you steal there won't be anything else for the others. Now you all are dismissed to retire for the evening."

With that the crowd slowly but surely dispersed. Even the sliders were moving in slow mournful as they left. But as they were leaving, someone poked Quinn in the back.

Looking back to see who poked him, Quinn was met with a man with brown spikey-ish hair and hard eyes.

"Follow me," the stranger said before heading off to a cabin they hadn't been in before.

The sliders then followed the stranger and once they walked into the cabin another man was already there.

Once the door was closed, the man introduced himself.

"I'm Skurge and this is Sgt. Jason Barnes," the spikey brown haired man said, as he motioned toward himself and a grey eyed man with scars that surrounded his right cheek down the his chin and he wore a dark green bandana.

"Are you all Naomi LaLache's most recent clients?" asked Skurge.

"Yes! Oh man fella, are we glad to finally meet you," exclaimed Rembrandt in hushed tones.

"Nice to meet you guys as well. Listen let's get down to it because we don't have a lot of time. Especially due to the curfew."

Jason took over the explanation from there. "Within in the next few days, we're tasked with getting as many people out of here as we can. To do this, we have to make a disturbance of such magnitude that the guards won't question why there are people missing. So when the time comes, make sure you're in Sector thirteen. That's another mining area but it's our ticket out of here."

"This disturbance. Will people die?" asked Arturo.

"Oh yes," Jason responded callously.

"So the plan is only so many people are going to leave. Others have to die so that we and a few more can live? How's that fair?"

"Look. The harsh reality is not everybody's going to make it. We can't and don't have time to screen everyone to see whether or not they're spies. Face facts lady, they are here! Our priority is to get as many people that we're able to trust out and into a safe heaven. Now you all can stay here for all I care. I've got a mission to fulfill. Are you in or out?" Jason asked in a rigid tone.

As much as the sliders hated this and it sickened them to their very core, they knew this was their only chance. "We're still in," Quinn answered in dismay.

Skurge picked it up from there saying, "Good. Now listen, the word to announce the escape is Leviathan. Once you hear that word get to Sector Thirteen and make sure that you keep quiet no matter what. Any kind of noise or disturbance will blow this thing out of the water. And when it does, you can count on the warden killing each and every person here. He has that authority. Now are there any questions? I'll answer anything but it's got to be now."

"Yeah sorta. How were those guards able to control fire like that?" asked Quinn.

"You really don't know?" Jason asked skeptically.

"We're from Canada!" blurted Rembrandt.

Skurge shook his head in disbelief and said, "Well the guards are called Fire Benders. Forty years ago now, the king of this nation, King Chase Unomaraq, inherited the kingdom when he was only ten years old but by the time he was thirteen he was weak and dying of a disease. So he commissioned his best scientist, who was also doctor, to make him a cure. The cure was to be tested on anyone and everyone they could kidnap. This cure killed many; however, it turned a lot of people into what we call benders. These benders can wield one of the many elements. This so called cure was then modified a few more times and another type of benders came out of it called Avatars. These Avatars can bend all of the elements. Once they found this, the product was altered once more and then the final product was given to the king. The king then received many powers, one of which allows him to transform into a beast that looks like a lion, dragon scorpion looking monster."

"The emblem on the guards and the warden!"

"Exactly."

"What about the people? To these benders I mean most of which look too young for something that happened that many years ago," asked Arturo.

"Well, the king wanted an army now. One that extremely powerful. So he drafted those with powers into special guards like the ones here and the rest into his military. But when there wasn't enough people to his liking he started kidnapping children from as early as three months old to as old as twenty-three years old and put them through a newly improved treatment. One that would have no more deaths and only power inducement."

"Oh my goodness!"

"Well now you know that story we should get some sleep. There's still a lot to do," Skurge said as he motioned for the sliders to leave so that he could continue planning with Jason.

As the sliders entered into their own cabin, they each silently were happy to leave soon but still did not like so many people had to die. Unfortunately, it was the unforgiving reality that they were in.

All four sliders found themselves resting in an agitated sleep that night.

_**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**_

Two days later, those who were going to escape were getting anxious and they made it known to Skurge one morning during breakfast.

"We should do this now!" whispered a man that they've come to know as Martin. Martin was a middle aged man who had a buzz cut with a stout nose and had harsh green eyes.

"NO!" Skurge exclaimed in a harsh whisper. "The plan is for tomorrow. You can wait another twenty-four hours. Our partner still has to require the amount of horses that we need to cross the desert."

"Forget that man! Look, we've been living in this hell for too long. We have no problem walking," argued Martin. A few murmurs of agreement came back to Skurge's ears. But then Jason slammed his fist on the table loud enough to get their attention but not so loud to alert the guards in the mess tent.

"Look you ungrateful dogs, we don't have time for this either follow our instructions or get left behind. We can and will replace you with some others that are just as desperate to get out as you."

With the message sent loud and clear the workers got back to finishing their food before going to start their day of work. However within the first five hours of works, there was another disturbance.

But this time, the disturbance was loud enough to get the attention of the entire camp. The sliders, following the crowd, came to see what's happened.

What they saw was shocking. On the ground laid a man who had been stabbed and a young girl was sobbing into the dead man's still bleeding chest. Her brown bands had already started to clump together with blood as she refused to lift her face from the dead man's chest.

"What's happened?" asked the warden as he made his way to the seen.

The guard still holding the bloody sword answered, "I saw that the man wasn't working and he refused. Then for no reason he tried to attack me. I naturally defended myself."

Before the warden could open his mouth, the distraught teen answered loudly, "That's a lie! I was working and came to give my father his garments that I had fixed. But before I could reach his work area you tried to rape me! My father saw you lift up my dress and tried to stop you!"

The crowd gasped and then Martin came forward and yelled, "You see everyone! This monsters think that just because we're prisoners that they can get away with anything. But this ends today! Who's with me?!"

It didn't take long for the inmates to rally behind Martin as they all attacked the guards.****** Soon battle cries field the whole camp as angry prisoners stampeded the guards who in turn returned fire with literal fire. But this did not stop the inmates. They had returned fire with the rocks, pikes, and the very swords they were welding.

Within minutes there was a flowing river of blood along with mangled body parts bobbing up and down within them. And for many, what was once inside the body in life was seeping outside the body in death. The ground was gummed up with the blood as many people tried to get out of the way of the riot.

However, no one could escape the smell of death as it hung in the air as the butchered and smoldering bodies lied in a gruesome heap.

The lone saving grace came from two voices screaming over the clangs of weapons and those who were screaming in pain, saying, "_**Leviathan!**_" Then the voices repeated itself twice more.

With the signal now given, the sliders and many others ran toward the Sector Thirteen. As the sliders ran away from the carnage, they couldn't help but run past multiple –and sometimes over-the writhing injured souls that fell to the ground. But they couldn't escape a lot of the fight.

In mere seconds, Quinn dodged an oncoming rock that he hoped wasn't intended for him. And as he looked over his shoulder to see who threw the object, Quinn's eyes were met with the horrid scene that was unfolding behind them.

Behind those who fled, there were people dying an excruciating death. Quinn witnessed one fire bender dodge a sword being flung at him; however, the fire bender did not see another inmate come up behind him and thrust a pike through his chest.

Just as the fire bender fell to the ground with a loud gurgle, Wade forcibly grabbed a startled Quinn from behind and pushed the tall man toward the escape route in the mine.

As the two caught up with the others within the mine, Skurge and Jason both instructed then in a loud whisper, "Move it everyone! Remember, don't make any noise. Watch where you step and if anyone sees you on the outside feign normalcy."

Everyone heeded the warnings given and began to move quickly and with as much efficiency as they could. The sliders stayed as closely to each other as they could but within twenty minutes of their escape a loud explosion came from the out and that in turn caused great rumbling came within the mountain.

The rocks within the mine started to fall and collided with several heads of the escapees. This in turn created a greater panic than the one that was barely contained before.

This deep rumble caused people to trip over each other in a great hast and the mine to started to collapse inward.

Within the panic, the sliders started to get separated in the mass chaos as everyone ran toward the end of the mine. Once there, Jason-who was happened to be ahead of the crowd- started dig pick up the picks that were left in their preparation. The man started to slam the pick against the wall as some others used their hands to grab at the rocks.

It didn't take long for the combined effort to break through the wall and then everyone scurried out of the mine's cave in. Among those who had already gotten out, Arturo, Quinn, and Rembrandt were waiting for Wade to emerge with the rest of the crowd.

But a deeper rumble caused everyone on the outside to freeze in fear. The crowd witnessed the deeper rumble cause the exit cave in and slowly close itself up with falling rocks which cause a mist of sand to blow into the air.

As the exit closed, Quinn attempted to lunge for the opening that was disappearing before his eyes; however, Skurge and Jason held him back as several other men held back the other sliding men.

As the opening sealed itself in a dusty fog, Quinn cried out in desperation, "WADE!"

**..:TBC:..**

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**A/N: **Alright! Now we're getting somewhere. But the real question is: Does Wade Live?! Stay Tuned to Find Out! *cue maniacal laugh* XD


	5. Chapter 5

**Rating:** PG-13

**Warning:** This story is NOT for Maggie Beckett fans!

**Disclaimer:** All television shows, movies, books, and other copyright material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. I only own my original characters.

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Across a barren wasteland, the thick blanket of the sun beat down on the travelers who were walking. The heat was intense and for the last eighteen hours, with a few intermittent breaks in between, these travelers had been walking in the hot desert. Every so often though, a lone wind graced the sweaty travelers with its presence.

But when there was no breeze, the only thing that brought them comfort were their shemaghs. These shemaghs were black in color and draped over their heads and faces to protect them from the viscous heat. The shemagh on their heads draped covered over their ears, neck, and shoulders. And the other shemagh that covered their mouths and front of their necks.

Thankfully, then over the horizon came many horses led by a slender female who was also wearing shemagh. As she came to a stop in front of the travelers, she looked at one figure and said, "Judging by your sweat you left early."  
The man she spoke to pulled down the shemagh around his face to reveal himself to be Skurge.

"Things happen Krissy. Let's start distributing these horses."

Once the sliders had their horses, Quinn looked at the small traveler next to him. "Hey," Quinn said getting the attention of a fellow traveler with a small figure, "are you sure you're okay? That cave in was pretty brutal."

The small cloaked figure mounted the horse in a swift motion and as the person had situated, the person tugged at the shemagh covering her mouth. Once the cloth freed her face, Wade looked at Quinn with a tired expression.

"Yeah Quinn I'm alright, really. I'm just a little sore."

"Only a little sore?! Girl I've never seen such fancy foot work from you before. I mean just as the final rock fell you flew through the tiniest opening ever, with a child in your arms, and then landed in a tuck-in-roll! That was beautiful," complemented Rembrandt as he galloped his horse closer to his friends.

"Yes Ms. Welles that was very well done. But in the future, might I ask that you not give me heart failure anymore," added Arturo as he rode by on his much larger horse.

"Oh sure Professor, cause I so planned to be crushed by half a mine," Wade retorted with an eye roll.

"Ms. Welles, you know that I did not mean it that way…" But then Skurge interrupted the rest of what Arturo was going to say with a loud whistle to get everyone's attention.

"Listen up everyone!" shouted Skurge to the group. "Don't stray from the group. Where we're going is tough to locate. And do not bring attention to the group! If someone sees you, just act normal. Now let's move!"  
With that said, everyone got their horses moving to follow Skurge.

Quinn looked at Wade, who had retied her shemagh around her face, and thought, _These slides are getting more and more dangerous. First the Professor and now almost Wade…something's gotta change. But what?_

These thoughts plagued Quinn's mind for the next few hours as the traveled further and further into the desert.  
Finally though, after a long and very hot journey the travel finally came to a slow halt at the foot of a small mountain.

"Alright everyone, this is it. Stop right here," said Jason.

"You know with everything we've heard about this place, I was expecting a lot more," said Rembrandt.

Quinn looked at mountain and said, "I think that's exactly what they want us to feel Cryin' Man."

"Talk about underwhelming. If you didn't know this place was special. You'd always just go right past," added Wade.

Jason and Krissy then both dismounted their horses and handed their reigns to two people of their group. The two then climbed up a little ways then lifted from under their shirts a small blue crystal that dangled from a single string and inserted both crystals into a small hole on the side of a large boulder. Once inserted, the boulder then started to move and role away.

"Home sweet home everyone," said Krissy. "Go in as a single file line."

As the travelers entered the opening, they were able to see that the inside at first was a poorly lit cave. Then everyone was instructed to dismount their horses and walk with their reigns in their hands. As the travelers did what they were told, the sliders saw the boulder behind them slowly close and calmed their horses that got spooked a little due to the change in light.

Then everyone started to move once again and as they went deeper into the large cave they came across a large metal door. A door that Jason approached and banged on it with much force.

From the other side, a voice could be heard yelling, "Password!"

"Hhofesh!" yelled Jason in response. With the password given, the heavy metal door creaked as it slowly opened.

"Hho…that word. What's it mean?" asked Rembrandt.

"Hhofesh means freedom in Hebrew," answered Arturo.

"You speak Hebrew Professor?" asked Quinn.

"Among several others my boy. It's a beautiful language." The three other sliders looked between each other with an impressed expression on their faces. Their Professor was certainly an anomaly. But they loved him all the same.

As the travelers entered through the giant door, some people dressed in black military-like attire came and took the horses from them as they were ushered further into the haven.  
The interior of the haven was enormous. There were overhead lights to keep the inside well lite as the many people from all walks of life bustled about. Then a uniformed young woman approached Skurge. The woman was an attractive but there was a hardness about her. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and was athletically built. Then they approached Jason, who was leading the travelers to an unknown location.

"Take them to the registration area. Captain Beckett here wants to talk to a specific four," said Skurge. "Arturo, Brown, Mallory, and Welles stay behind."

With that the woman, Captain Beckett, approached them as Skurge left to follow the others.

"I'm Captain Beckett. Follow me," the woman said tersely.

The sliders simply looked at each other and followed behind the retreating captain.

**~_|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|_~**

Once Captain Beckett opened the door, the sliders stepped through to see that the room was of medium size, with rocky textured walls. On the back wall, there was a large couch and that there was a desk filled with papers across from it. Sitting at the desk was their lawyer, Naomi LaLache.

"Well hello. I'm glad to see you all got here safely. I hope the travel wasn't too horrible," greeted Naomi as the four sliders came into her office.

She motioned for the weary travelers to sit on the couch as she poured them all a glass of water.

"I hope everything was relatively okay for you all while you were in the camp and for your journey across the desert,"  
Naomi said conversationally.

"Meh. It was…well let's just say we're all glad to be alive," commented Wade, with the others nodding in agreement.

Naomi looked at them with sympathy as she sat back behind her desk. Then their lawyer took a deep breath to prepare herself for what she was about to say.

"I have some unfortunate news for you all. You see, when I finally got your 'timer' back from the police lockup. Um, well, I'm sorry to say that your 'timer' is..." unable to finish her sentence, Naomi simply reaches into a draw in her desk and gently hands them their now broken timer.

The sliders gasp in surprise as to what Quinn held in his hands. The once smooth plastic outer shell was now charred and cracked horribly. Quinn then opened the flap and tried to turn it on but the timer sparked wildly and smoke started to come out of the sides. The display that once had the countdown on it now refused to turn on.

"The timer...it's dead," Quinn said with an ominous defeat. The young genius slumped back in his seat and allowed Arturo to take the device from his limp hands.

"So we're stuck here?" But surprisingly it was Naomi who answered. "Well hopefully not." All of their heads snapped toward the lawyer in surprise. "Wait…what? You believed us?!"

Coming from behind her desk, Naomi sat in a vacant seat in front of the sliders and answered, "There's been so many things to happen to us…so I asked you those questions simply to make sure you weren't crazy or actually from another planet. So yes, I did come to believe y'all. And now, I'm hoping that the bartering agreement will help your current predicament. Basically, we're trying to escape this world."

"Wait. What do you mean another planet?"

"Just that. In our dimension we have life forms on other planets. In this dimension we have an alien neighbor called the Kromaggs…"

"Aw come on!" Rembrandt groaned loudly.

"You now of them?"

"Unfortunately yes. But when we ran into them they were on an alternate earth trying to invade several others."

"Yeah that sound like them. Again, I just wanted to make sure that you weren't one of them in disguise. They're technology is quite advanced and we don't know really who to trust."

"That's fair. So what's this bartering arrangement that could help us?"

"We have a Quantum Eigenstate Device, or as we call it Q.E.D., but we're having some problems though. But now this is where you all come in. We, rather, I'm hoping that because of your success with your device that we could use your expertise to help us resolve these problems. In return, you may use our facilities and tools to restore your…timer."

"That would be amazing! Thank you so much!"

"Alright it's settled then."

"I've got a question," said Rembrandt. Naomi looked at him expectantly. "Are you a lawyer and a scientist?" Before Naomi could answer, there was a knock on the door before it opened and an older Hispanic woman came in wheeling a cart of soup and more water. "Thank you Rita. Good night," Naomi said once the woman handed the four their meals and left.  
As the famished sliders were digging into their supper, Naomi smiled and answered Rembrandt's question, "I'm simply a lawyer. I don't deal in the realm of the laws of physics. Which in away really brings me to another point. While you all are here, there are somethings you should know and what you're up against." A troubled yet curious look crossed each of the sliders faces as Naomi continued.

"Look, we're on a time crunch because essentially our world is going to be destroyed by a pulsar. But the populace at large don't know of this because there's a massive world war going on between two rivaling kingdoms. Where we are is the Kingdom of Xiaovatar ruled by King Chase Unomaraq. The other is the smaller but still strong Kingdom of Wrezia ruled by King Ronan Drogo. But our troubles escalated eight years ago. Eight years ago, King Unomaraq's soldiers captured a Kromagg who was traveling in the same solar system at the time. Once it was captured, the alien then sent a distress signal to its homeworld. Then a representative of the Kromaggs was sent out to investigate. During the course of their meeting with King Unomaraq, it was discovered that the Kromaggs were a dying species living on their own dying world. The two groups then make a deal to help each other: enhanced genetics to extend the Kromaggs life in exchange for their help in the war. Once the deal was made, King Unomaraq allowed the aliens to use the same enhanced genetics he himself used, which was created by Dr. Geiger."

Wade's eyes went wide at this. _All this time sliding and I'm still shocked at things like this. Wonder what the professor thinks of all of this_, thought Wade as she glanced to the big man sitting next to her and saw an unreadable expression on the acadamien's face. Then Wade turned her attention back to what Naomi was saying and thought, _Then again maybe not_.

"Then two years later, which was six years ago now, a man by the name of Quinn Mallory 'slid', as you call it, into King Unomaraq's palace! The young man was immediately detained and set off to prison. His technology was also detained and studied by the King's men and the Kromaggs. Thankfully, my good friend by the name of Romo Lampkin was there and was able to steal some key schematics before escaping. He contacted me and another friend of ours named Dr. Timicin and we founded this safe heaven called the Underground Escape. Unfortunately, this didn't deter King Unomaraq or the Kromaggs because, quite frankly, they had your double Quinn. It didn't take long after that for the Kromaggs, with this new technology and well developed powers, to soon leave this dimension."

At this portion of the story, Quinn couldn't help but think, _Unbelievable, this Quinn discovered sliding much earlier than I did._

"You see, our goal is to leave this world as soon as possible. We've deployed a search team for a world that suitable for us and thankfully we've found it; however, the machine we've built can only take so many bodies inside. Again, I'm hoping that because of your success with your device that you'll be able to help diagnose what the problem is and help us expand the limit of the Q.E.D."

Taking it upon himself to speak for the group, Arturo took a deep breath and said, "This is certainly a dire situation. Regardless of that fact madam, we'll certainly do our best to help."

"That's all I ask. Now because of the late hour, let's find a place for you all to sleep," Naomi said as she stood up.  
Following her lead, the sliders had abandoned their empty bowls on the table in front of them and stood up from the couch they were sitting on.

As they opened the door, they found that Captain Beckett was standing guard outside of it.

"Captain, I didn't realize that you were still out here."

"Just making sure there was no funny business ma'am."

Naomi had a disapproving look on her face, but let it go. "Alright then. Have you seen Zoe? My clients here are going to be staying with us for a while."

"Yes ma'am, just follow me."

And like before, Maggie started off into an unknown direction. Naomi silently motioned for the sliders to follow her and Maggie.

**~_|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|_~**

As the group left the office, the sliders were escorted down a dirt floor passage way. As they were walking, there were a few workers bustling about hauling large planks of wood and large sandbags. However, one of the workers dropped a plank of wood on Maggie's foot. With a sharp yelp, Maggie glared at the poor worker. Knowing the look the captain was giving him, the worker refused to look at the angry captain.

Seeing the way Maggie was about to blow, Naomi eased the storm saying, "It's alright Maggie. It was just an accident."

"Yes ma'am I'm sorry. I didn't mean it," the worker said as he hurried away.

Still fuming, Maggie led the others toward to women who were speaking a little ways down and yelled at them.

"Hey Zoe! Got some new bunkers for ya."

With their conversation interrupted, one of the women left while the other waited for them to come closer. The woman, Zoe, was a statuesque Cuban woman. Her brown hair was of a wavy texture as it cascaded past her shoulders. She wore a dark green quarter length sleeved shirt and an auburn colored vest. She also wore tan khakis and had shin high black boots.

As she waited for approaching group, Zoe observed the four new people with Naomi and Maggie. The four were made up of three men and one woman.

The young woman was attractive and petite brunette. Her hair was short and complemented her features. The young woman was still in her labor camp attire.

On the brunette's left was a tall slender young man, who looked to be the same age, with wavy-ish brown hair. This young man had a cool yet dopey air about him.

The other male, although older and quite rotund, seemed to be the leader of the group and he seemed to ooze confidence. This man had a big bear like appearance with his curly mustache and beard while his hair was straight and slightly longer than most other men in his age group.

And finally, the last man of the new group caught Zoe's eye. The middle aged African-American was quite handsome with his wavy jet black hair and mustache. He appeared to be a couple of inches taller than her. And his eyes emitted a kindness that she hasn't seen from another adult man in a long time.

"Zoe these are the people that'll help us with our Q.E.D. problem. This is Quinn Mallory, Wade Welles, Professor Maximilian Arturo, and Rembrandt Brown. Everyone this Zoe Pearson, she's a very good friend of mine and she's going to show you where you'll be sleeping while y'all are here," Naomi said.

"It's nice to meet all of you," greeted Zoe. All of the sliders greeted her, except for Rembrandt who was too busy staring at Zoe. Wade got his attention by shoving her elbow into his side and a hello stumbled out of his mouth.

Naomi smirked at the singer's flustering and said, "Alright everyone, I've still got some things to do. So I'll leave you in Zoe's capable hands. Good night."

The sliders collectively said 'good night' and followed Zoe to their sleeping quarters.

**..:TBC:..**

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**Author's Note:** So I gotta say that while Zoe is fancasted to be the same actress, this Zoe is NOT the same as in Firefly! The Firefly corssover will be used as an Alternate Earth and the Zoe in that future fic will be a double. (Hopefully that makes sense.)

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Please R/R!


	6. Chapter 6

After breakfast the next morning, the four sliders had deposited their empty trays and they left the bunker's large community cafeteria. Surrounding them were many picnic like tables with just as many people eating and were immersed in their own conversations. Thus, the cafeteria was filled with tons of loud chatter.

As they left the giant cafeteria, Wade looked up at Arturo and saw the older man bring his fist to his mouth. "Are you okay Professor," Wade asked.

Once the ungentlemanly burp he was surprising had passed, Arturo brought his fist down and clutched his stomach. He groused, "Let's just say Ms. Welles, that the food here alone is inspiration enough to get off of this world."

"I hear that Professor. Man I haven't had a cheeseburger in so long I'm havin' withdrawal symptoms," Rembrandt said seriously. At the seriousness of his expression, the others laughed hysterically. Their laughter got several got several strange looks but they didn't care.

Once their laughter died down, Wade specifically asked Quinn, "By the way, did you get your work order taped to your bunk? Remmy and I did."

"Yeah, the Professor and I are working in the lab with a group of scientists and engineers led by a man named Dr. Howard Timicin. What about you guys?"

"Wade and I are supposed to be working in the stables with a guy named of Derek Roman. But now that you brought it up, we don't know where that is."

The sliders stopped walking at that realization. But just then two men were walking by the four sliders. Wade brazenly stepped in their path and asked, "Excuse me, where can we find Derek Roman's stable and Dr. Timicin's lab? We were told to go there and start work."

Both men were quite surprised by the sudden question. As the sliders waited for the men to answer Wade's question, they observed the two men before them.

One was a fair skinned Japanese man who had spiky grey hair that was leaning to the left. He wore a navy blue uniform, a green opened vest, and opened toed tabi boots. The man also wore forehead protector that hung over his left eye and a mask that covered the lower half of his face.

The other man was Caucasian and had a friendly yet stern expression on his face. This man had short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a small scar on his left cheek. He wore a white button down shirt with rolled up sleeves, tan dress pants, and black loafers.

"Oh you all must be the new workers. I overheard your arrival from our friend Zoe," said the spiky grey haired man in a pleasant voice. "That's us. I'm Wade and these are my friends: Rembrandt, Quinn, and the Professor."

"Nice to meet you all I'm Kakashi and this is Vance Wagner."

"So who's going where?" asked Vance, getting right to the point.

"These two are going to Dr. Timicin. While Rembrandt and I are going to Derek Roman," Wade informed them.

"Got it. Look, I'll take you two to Derek and Vance here will take you two to Dr. Timicin," offered Kakashi.

"That's much appreciated Mr. Kakashi,"

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

Wade and Rembrandt had followed Kakashi through another cave tunnel and then entered into a beautiful area. The 'stable' was nothing what Wade nor Rembrandt were expecting. There were beautiful green trees. There was somehow a small opening in the mountain ceiling that allowed for the beautiful sunlight the beam through. Below their feet was a lush grass still wet from the morning dew that had fallen earlier that day. Then several yards away, the two sliders could see a man built wooden stable that had been constructed into the side of the mountain wall. Within those wooden stalls were an array of beautiful horses. Some of which, Wade and Rembrandt could recognize as the same horses that brought them and the other escapees to the compound. And to further their amazement, a small beautiful waterfall flowed to a small stream. Along the walls around the water fall were thick vines and exotic looking flora of an array of colors that sprouted through and fell along the ground.

"Beautiful, right?" said Kakashi, unintentionally startling the two sliders out of their Riviera.

The two could only nod in response which caused Kakashi to smile underneath his mask.

"Look I gotta go. I have a self-defense class to go teach. It was nice meeting you both though."

Finally snapping back to reality, Wade and Rembrandt looked at the masked mad and shook his hand. "Thanks so much Kakashi. Hopefully we can talk soon," said Wade.

"Sure. Have a good day!" Kakashi said sweetly as he left.

As Wade and Rembrandt moved furhter into the vast area a voice rang out from behind a large barrel of hay asking,

"Who's there?"

Not seeing anyone, Wade answered anyway. "Uh, my friend and I were sent here by Naomi and Zoe. I'm Wade Welles and my friend here is Rembrandt Brown."

A man came out from behind the hay barrel and came closer, the two sliders were surprised to be met with Derek Bond. His double to be precise. He still looked the same as the last time they saw him from psychic world. The only difference being that he wore a simple black shirt and grey sweat pants instead of a suit.

"Hello, I'm Derek Roman."

"Roman?"

"Yes," Derek said, unable to take his eyes off of Wade. There was something mysterious and captivating in the brunette's eyes that held Derek in awe. "I'm sorry but it's like we've met before," Derek said in amazement.

Wade smiled and thought,You have no idea.

Smiling at the smitten stable keeper, Rembrandt broke the young man's Riviera and asked, "So Derek, what do you want us to do?"

"Well you're basically be our runners. So you'll assisting me and my other hands with our jobs. Those jobs include feeding, cooling out, bathing, loading hay, and even keeping the stables tidy. The only job we won't need you for is exercising the horses. That is unless you two have powers that deal with earth and or sand."

"No we don't have any powers," answered Rembrandt.

"Again, that's great. In actuality, I'm one of only three others that can really take the horses outside for exercise because of my powers."

"What're your powers?"

"I'm, uh, much different than some of the others here. Something went wrong with my 'training' that left me with the ability to absorb matter. So when I go outside, I take a hand full of sand and absorb its material and I can transform into a sand like man. And when I go outside, I can camouflage better essentially."

"Wow. I guess that really comes in handy with this work."

"Sure does. But why don't we get you two started. Rembrandt, why don't you help me with hauling hay and Wade why don't you work on cooling down the horse I've just brought back." With that said, the three were off to work.

A couple of hours later, two figures approached them. One was Captain Beckett and the other was a chubby man of average height wearing dark shades, a long blue overcoat, a grey shirt, and black pants.

"About Face Derek and bring your new workers with you!" cried Maggie.

A few moments later, Derek came forward and was followed by Wade and Rembrandt. The two sliders were sweaty and smelled of horses, but this change was quite welcome considering they had just escaped the labor camp not too long ago.

"You summoned us Captain?" sarcastically asked Derek. The stableman was not a fan of the captain. He found her cold, demanding, and more than in love with her position and power. But the founders of the compound –Naomi, Dr. Howard Timicin, and Romo Lampkin– were in charge of everything here. They were also in charge of extending their authority to those who they, or at least two of the three, saw worthy. One of which was the man that accompanied the captain.

Romo Lampkin is a retired lawyer who had seen a lot in his life. Like many in the compound, Romo had lost a lot due to the war and tyranny that raged outside of the mountain walls. But the real tragedy for Romo occurred when his wife and two daughters were killed while he was at work. Romo's never gotten truly over the loss of his family but he does help others in their memory.  
Which is what brought him to the sliders. He wanted to see their so-called 'last chance' in person.

"Hello, I'm Romo Lampkin. I heard about you lot and I thought I'd come and meet you," Romo said in a raspy British accented voice.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Rembrandt Brown and this is my friend Wade Welles."

"Pleasure. How's Derek here treating you?"

"Great! I gotta say that working here is a nice change of pace,"

"I'd hope so. Especially considering that you've all just come from a harsh labor camp. And Derek I'd like to go over somethings with you concerning your horses. When's a good time?"

"Probably not today seeing as he's babysitting today," grumbled Maggie.

"I'm sure he can answer for himself," retorted Wade.

Maggie's eyes narrowed and bore them into Wade. To which, Wade met right back, unflinching.  
Romo and Derek smirked at the young female slider.

"Later this afternoon is fine Romo," responded Derek.

"Fantastic. Well on that pleasant note, I'll let you all get back to work. Let's go Captain," Romo said as he smiled a crooked smile at Rembrandt and Wade before leaving. A grumpy Maggie traveling not far behind.

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

The lab in which Arturo and Quinn were working was quite spacious and more technologically advanced then either of them anticipated. The lab was very large with multiple work stations. Many of the stations had large computers and others had large tables with tools and many bits and pieces of many timers being built and worker on. In the very back of the room was a very large machine. It was a sliding machine three times as big as the one Quinn had built in his basement. The lab was headed by Dr. Howard Timicin.

Dr. Timicin was a gentle giant of a man. He was a balding man with a warm tenor voice. He wore a large white lab coat over his grey khaki pants and red button down shirt. The man is extremely intelligent and very concise in his instructions to his team of many workers.

Along with his head assistant Harold, they were in charge of working on the sliding machine and the timers. The timers were a backup plan just in case the sliding machine didn't work and they could input Paradise Earth's coordinates. The lab was also in charge of monitoring the oncoming pulsars threatening their Earth.

"Harold, what've you got on the pulsars?" asked Dr. Timicin as he made his way over the young man working at his computer.

Due to his fierce concentration, Harold didn't respond as his fingers continued to type at such a fast rate his fingers seemed as if they were flying across the computer keyboard.

Although, Harold's face was scrunched up at the numbers and figures on his computer screen, he was a handsome Korean man. Harold has an olive colored skin tone, immaculate shiny jet black hair, and deep brown eyes. Like Dr. Timicin, he wore a white lab coat. Underneath the coat, Harold wore a dark blue vest, a blue stripped shirt, and black dress pants.

Seeing Harold's level of concentration, Dr. Timicin took no offence of not being answered. Once the large scientist reached Harold's work desk, he placed a large hand on the younger man's shoulder and asked, "How're we looking?"

Finally noticing, his friend and boss standing at his elbow, Harold leant back in his chair and scrubbed his face wearily.

"The trajectory of the pulsar is looking to hit sooner than we ever realized. Although like any pulsar, the discharge of the electromagnetic radiation is short but it will cause unimaginable devastation."

"How bad?" asked Quinn, as he looked up from his work.

"The majority of the planets in this solar system will be annihilated. And every living thing on any inhabitable planet will be dead. Specifically for earth, there's no place deep enough within our planet that will stop the radiation from going and nothing is strong enough to withstand the heat it will bring."

"How soon is this?" asked Arturo.

"That's what I'm working on right now. All I can tell you is that it's coming sooner. How soon I just don't know yet."

The occupants in the lab were all silent as the totality of the situation they were in settled on their shoulders.

As they were contemplating the situation, the glass door to the lab opened and two men came inside. The first was Jason and he was accompanied by a young colored man holding some rolled up blue prints in his hands.

"Hey Doc, Naomi wants to know what's going on with the pulsar."

"I was just about to go and find her. Come along with me. That way I don't have to explain it more than once," Dr. Timicin said as he already heading out of the door. Due to the tall scientist's long stride, Jason had to jog out of the closing glass door to catch up.

Looking at the two men's retreating backs, the young man that came in with Jason looked back at Harold. "Bad news, huh?"

Harold's body shook with a weary sigh. "Yeah Dorian. It's bad news."

"Will we be able to escape on time?"

Quinn answered the young man. "We're hoping so. We've made more than a few breakthroughs. All of which deals with expanding the band width of your devices."

"But what about the Q.E.D. machine? Will it hold everyone Mr. …umm…"

"Quinn. Just Quinn. And we're hoping that we can expand the Q.E.D.'s band width the same way. The only problem we're facing now is reinforcing the outer shell of the machine. You see, the machine would collapse and cause untold destruction to the compound if not properly reinforced. So we're waiting on the head engineer for his designs."

"Well you don't have to wait any longer. I'm Dorian LaLache and I'm the head engineer," Dorian said.

"Really?" Arturo asked with a skeptical expression. The young man before them looked to be quite young. Arturo guessed the young man to be in his late teens. Which was soon founded to be correct with Dorian's next statement.

"Yeah, I know. I know. I'm just eighteen but I understand this kind of stuff. The others here can vouch for me. And not because of my mom either. I've rebuilt more than half the stuff in this lab."

"That's awesome and it's nice to meet you Dorian. Like I said, I'm Quinn and this is Professor Arturo."

Dorian stared at the professor for a moment or two before reaching to shake the Englishman's out stretched hand.

"I beg your pardon, but did you say LaLache?" asked Arturo once they released each other's hand.

"Yeah. My birth parents died when I was ten. So my godmother Naomi adopted me. After that I took her name."

"I'm sorry to hear that about your parents. I know what it's like to lose a parent," Quinn said sympathetically.

"Thanks man," Dorian said and then he pulled out the blue prints he had been holding since he came into the lab. "But let me show you guys some things I've come up with."

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

By the end of the day, Wade and Rembrandt were accompanied to the lab by Derek. The glass door swung open catching the attention of Quinn and Dorian while Arturo and Dr. Timicin and Harold were discussing the pulsar further in hushed tones.

"Hey guys! This is Derek Roman," introduced Wade.

With the new people came into the lab, the conversation about the pulsar broke up. Arturo approached his friends and was shocked to see Derek's double. Before he could say anything though, Quinn introduced Dorian to the other sliders.

"Nice to meet you Derek. Wade, Remmy, this is Dorian. He's the head engineer for the Q.E.D."

"Nice to meet ya, young fella," Remmy said as he and Wade shook the young engineer's hand.

"Say, would you guys like to join us for dinner?" Quinn invited Dorian and Derek.

"Are you sure?" Dorian asked.

"Of course boy! At least, then could you advise us on what to eat. Breakfast was quite an experience."

"Dr. Timicin would you like to join us?" invited Wade.

"No thank you. I'm going to eat with my wife and catch up with her day."

"Alright, we'll see you tomorrow," Quinn said as they left the lab.

As the group made their way to the cafeteria, Wade and Rembrandt got caught up about Harold and Dorian. "So do you have any siblings Dorian?" inquired Wade.

"Yeah, I'm the oldest of four."

"Wow! Personally, I'm the youngest of two. I can't imagine three other siblings really," joked Wade.

"It's not that bad."

"They get on your nerves?"

"Not really no. But if you were to ask my sister Adira, she'd tell you I get on her nerves a lot!"

"Why is that?"

"Oh. Well she's big into fighting and self-defense while I'm not. Not to say that I don't fight! I just fight for others."

"And not to defend yourself…"

"I do! Just with words and not physically."

"Why don't you?"

"It's cause…well I guess it goes back to my birth parents. When I was a kid, I used to get bullied a lot and one day when I got really sick of it I asked my parents to go and stop it. Like any parent, they wanted to talk with the parents of these bullies. Next thing I know, they left me with my godmother Naomi on a Sunday afternoon while they were going by train to speak to one of the parents. But they never came back. We saw on the news that the train had an accident and crashed. More than seventy percent of the passengers had died and among the dead were my parents."

"Whoa. I'm so sorry,"

"Yeah me too."

"What were their names?" asked Rembrandt.

"Michael and Odetta Mallory," answered Dorian. At the name, the sliders perked up and looked at each other. Before any of them could truly say anything, Harold spoke up. The young astrophysicist was unaware of the sliders' shock at the moment.

"That's when Naomi adopted you isn't it?" asked Harold.

"Yep. And because of it I'm not an orphan. So I'm not complainin'. There are a lot of kids that are still suffering, ya know?"

Once Quinn recovered, he asked, "So 'Adira', she's protective of you?"

"Oh yeah! We have a similar background but completely different personalities. Well in the sense that she and I were both adopted by Mama, uh Naomi, and her husband. Their birth son Jett was three at the time and she was pregnant with Breana. You see, Adira was an orphan living in the swamps of New Orleans and she had just escaped the training facilities only a month or so before. Adira was not a trusting kid and she loved to fight."

"Did Adira's parents die as well?"

"We were told that Adira's parents left her in the valley of lost children. This valley has become popular because of the many dead children left there. In this world, if a parent has a child with a disability they go to this valley to leave the child to die; however, in Adira's case when her parents found out she was blind and left her in this valley she was actually taken in by some animals called badgermoles and these beasts raised her and taught her how to be more than functional in her blindness. But then the King's soldiers came when Adria was just four years old and took her because there was a legend of a wild child in the hills. Once they took her, the soldiers killed the badgermoles and took her to a facility that we've discovered to be in Virginia. The death of the badgermoles had always haunted Adira. Once she was in this facility, she was made into an earth bender and taught how to speak, read, and write. She told me that even though the whole situation was horrendous and torturous, she always fought back and was plotting to escape. And she did when she was six years old. She had garnered enough strength and power to escape and made it all the way back to New Orleans. Like I said before, this was when mama met Adira. Adira was actually trying to steal some food but she got caught! But because mama never judged her or made her feel different, Adira never wanted to leave her. So mama and her husband adopted her. And cause we -as the other LaLache kids- didn't judge her either, Adira began to trust us and decided to protect us from anything and everything."

The four sliders were lost for words. They were floored by the history they had just heard. They also had an immense amount of respect for Naomi by adopting these two children. But Quinn was especially lost for words because the young man before him was essentially his step-brother on this Earth. He knew that on other worlds his family could have, and has, taken an infinite number of paths. The very first slide they went to, Tundra World, was proof of this fact.  
Quinn remembered the picture he had found which showed his parents, him, a sister he himself never had, and his long lost dog Popper. He felt amazed at the discovery. But at this very moment, Quinn felt a special tug within himself toward Dorian. It was no question why he felt this way either. Quinn knew it was because Dorian has shared an even greater loss of losing both parents. And he wanted to be there for Dorian. The only question that was: What can I do for him though? Quinn thought as they finally got to the community cafeteria.

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

Later that same evening, Naomi and Zoe were talking in the lawyer's office within the compound. As the two women were discussing the day's events, the door opened and in walked Romo.

"Hello ladies," greeted the former lawyer.

"Hi Romo. What brings you by this evening?" asked Naomi.

Romo had sat down on the sofa that Zoe was occupying while Naomi was seated in a chair across from the sofa. Once he sat down, he took off his sunglasses and bore his hazel eyes into the lawyer in front of him. "I met your new recruits today. Well I met two of them. Wade and Rembrandt, I believe they said their names were. I only observed the other two working in the lab. Both of those men…"

"We know," wearily said Naomi.

"So it's true then. You really made a deal with this group?"

"Yes. They're our only hope now."

"But what about your youngest? Has Breana met either of them yet? Has she met him yet? I can't imagine that going well," stated Romo.

"No, and quite frankly I hope she doesn't. The last thing she needs is to be reminded of being held captive at that horrible place."

"I would guess so darling. Being kidnapped and being told on a daily basis they were going to be eaten would scare anyone. Much less an eight year old,"

"Does she still have nightmares?" asked Zoe.

"Oh of course. She's a shadow of what she used to be. And although Jett was in the same position, he's doing much better. He's still got a long ways to go though. Honestly, the only saving grace of that situation was that we got her and her brother Jett out of there as soon as we could."

"I remember that. I never saw you lose that much control on a daily basis. I mean of course, I understood the situation you were in, two of your kids being taken! That was as much a living nightmare for you as it was for them. But Dorian kept you grounded in positivity and never let you give up. And as much as I hate to say, the success of that mission was really thanks to Sokka and Adira. Those kids of ours…they snuck into that rescue mission and helped save them and liberated several other inmates," Zoe said, as she remembered her own thoughts and feelings of that day when she found out her adopted son Sokka had snuck out with Naomi's adopted daughter Adira to assist in the supposed classified mission.

"Adira is my kind of kid. Not letting anyone or anything or even her disability stop her from saving her siblings," praised Romo.

"She would be. You're both stubborn rebels. You're practically the same person. The only difference being you're a middle aged Brit and she's a twelve year old earthbender."

Naomi smirked at Zoe's comments.

"Regardless, what're your plans for keeping Breana away from these new comers? Although this is a big place, she could still very well bump into him or at the very least hear the rumors. Her and Jett's situation is very well known here. So anything like 'evil doubles working in the lab' will rile up any of the residents. Especially once Mrs. Tweek finds out."

At the last statement, Naomi's expression changed and took a deep weary filled sigh.  
She didn't know what to think really. Naomi could only hope for the best and desperately try and keep her youngest child away from the sliders.

**..:TBC:..**


	7. Chapter 7

Over the next several days, Naomi was successful in keeping her younger kids away from the labs and the sliders; however, she wasn't sure how long that would last. The lawyer knew her children well. Well enough to know that the bogus story she had told them about equipment being tested would not last long. Naomi knew that her oldest son Dorian would keep it a secret but the children's young and curious minds would lead them astray sooner or later.

But at the moment she had to force those very thoughts out of her mind and focus on what Dr. Timincin and Arturo and Quinn were saying about the was saying about the success they had finally hit upon about the expanded power they were able to create.

She was accompanied by Rembrandt, Wade, Romo, Zoe, and Harold's wife Wendy. Wendy was a beautiful Korean woman with shoulder length brown hair and stunning bronze colored eyes.

As the three men finished their announcement, Rembrandt asked plainly, "So just to be clear, you all finally found a way to expand the band width and then from there we can leave this world?"

"Sort of yes. We found the way to expand the band width and now we're planning to expand it to the appropriate size we need to get everyone inside the Q.E.D. And as we're doing this, Dorian has assured us that the testing of the extra coating metal will soon be underway," Dr. Timincin answered.

"Alright, so what about our Plan B: the Devices or Timers as you all call them. How's that coming?" asked Romo.

"That's shown to be a bigger challenge than we originally realized," said Quinn.  
Unknown to the group, the lab door opened and a new set of people entered into the room. The group consisted of a little girl and an older boy -both of whom bore resemblance to Naomi, and a man with short black hair.

"Why is it a problem?" asked Naomi, still totally oblivious to the new group.

But before anyone could answer, a piercing scream cut through the conversation. The source of the scream was the little girl with thick dark blackish-brown hair that was pulled up into a messy bun. She has a golden caramel complexion and dark haunted eyes.

At the blood curdling scream, everyone turned to the new comers. At seeing her daughter and son, Naomi rushed to them. Specifically her terrified daughter.

"Breana, calm down. It's okay. These aren't the same men. Calm down sweetie," Naomi said as she practically pleaded with her daughter.

"Ma?! What're they doin' here?!" asked the older boy.

"They're doubles Jett. They're here to help us," promised Zoe.

"Doubles? Auntie Zo…" Jett said but trailed off.

"I promise you they're not here to hurt you or anyone in any way. They're trying to leave this world just like us," Zoe assured her nephew.

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked Jett now looking at his mother holding his sister in her arms. The little girl had stopped screaming and now was wailing into their mother's shoulder.

"Because we didn't want to worry you both. That's also why I told you to stay away from the labs," scolded Naomi.

"Uh, that'd be my fault Naomi," said the young man that came in with the kids.

"We should've known Dan. Why did you do that?" asked Wendy.

"Well I heard through the grapevine that some juicy stuff was going on down here. Then I was playing with the kids here and we got to talkin' and it just sorta happened." Dan said as he shrugged with guilt.

"Well thanks to you Breana here is having about to have a panic attack!" exclaimed Romo.

"But I didn't mean…" Dan started but was cut off by Romo's face turning a dangerous shade of red.

"You 'didn't mean'? You didn't mean what? Dan Mallord did you mean, you weren't trying to disobey a direct order to STAY THE BLOODY HELL AWAY FROM HERE?! **MORON!**" Romo roared.

"Look Dan, we're going to deal with this later. Right now we have things to do. So do us all the favor and stand there and be quiet," Dr. Timincin amended but with enough firmness to let Dan know there was going to be trouble.

Once Naomi got her daughter to calm down, Rembrandt, Wade, and Quinn approached the new group but it was noticeable that as Arturo came closer the child flinched with terror.

All four sliders noticed the reaction and as Arturo came a little closer the little girl whimpered and was trying to scramble out of her mother's arms and get away from the eldest slider.

At the exchange, Wade realized that she's never seen someone as scared as the little girl in her entire life. In addition to this, Wade noticed that the little girl had a fearful yet far away expression plastered across her face even though Naomi continued to calm her down.

Eventually though, Naomi was successful in getting her youngest to take several deep breaths which in turn calmed the child; however, every so often the little girl would glace at Arturo with fear and distrust in her eyes.

Under the scrutiny of her stare, Arturo shuffled uncomfortably and was hurt most by the look in her eyes.

Within himself, Arturo knew that those eyes would haunt him. The emotions within him were too numerous to count; however, the two most powering emotions were anger and determination.

His anger was directed at whatever despicable double of his caused such pain to an innocent child. While most would not believe it, he did enjoy children. They were innocent to the crimes and consequences any world had to offer.

This anger was in turn fueling his determination. This determination was going to push him to work harder than he has ever worked in his life. Arturo wanted to make sure that this child would be safe on another world and pray that she would know no more fear in her life.

Once everyone had settled down, Quinn took over the explanation of what they were working on. He explained how the new dimensions and designs, provided by Dorian, of the timer and the machine would enable them to use more of the unique power source they had in the compound.

As Quinn was explaining everything, Arturo slowly stepped back and went back to a work station.

"However, with all of these changes there are still tweeks in the program we still need to work out. Again, we're working with Dorian about laying one more protective layer of metal over the Q.E.D. machine. With the amount of people going through the portal, we simply want the extra safety precautions," said Quinn as he tried to explain their findings as simply as he could.

Naomi had now released Breana and was now standing behind her daughter and had her hands placed comfortingly on Breana's shoulders. "Alright. I appreciate the extra precaution. Now what of the pulsars?"

As Harold took over the explanations concerning the pulsar, Dan Mallord got bored and saw Arturo across the room munching silently on a candy bar with a thoughtful expression across his face. Time for some fun, thought Dan. Smiling wickedly to himself, Dan made his way over to the professor.

Noticing the man approaching him, Arturo finished off the candy bar and threw the wrapping away. "Wow Prof. You sure do know how to pack it away don'tcha?"

"Did you have a point of coming over here young man," Arturo growled dangerously low.

"Well I did, but the way you practically swallowed that candy bar whole got me distracted," taunted Dan.

Arturo stood up from his chair and straightened up to his full height. "Mr. Mallord I've been in this lab for many hours with sustained concentration. I've not had breakfast nor lunch, so you'll have to forgive me for having something as unhealthy as a candy bar.

Dan not moved by the bristling professor goes so far as to poke the man's large paunch, and says,

"'Unhealthy?' Oh right cause you got this pretty little figure to worry about."

"Enough!" bellowed Arturo as he slammed his hand on the table. Unfortunately, Arturo instantly regretted his temper as he saw Breana, across the room, flinch again and looked at him with unbridled fear. Arturo then decided to watch his temper and overall behavior when the little girl was around.

Thus, the professor said softer but no less seriously, "Mr. Mallord, I have work to do. So unless you wish to prevent me from focusing on getting you lot off of this hell hole, I suggest that you bother me no more." With that Arturo moved away from Dan and went to retrieve more tools he and Quinn would need for the rest of the day.

As the older man roughly brushed past him, Dan scratched the back of his head and noticed Wendy looking at him with disapproval. Dan simply flashed a smile at her and shrugged his shoulders in mock innocence.

"I think it's time for us to go. Keep us up to date on everything. Dan, let's go," Naomi said tersely.

With that everyone, except for few, left the lab.

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

Once the others left, Quinn couldn't help but ask Wendy, "What happened to her?"

Wendy shared a concerned look with her husband Harold and moved to sit on the edge of his work desk.

"It starts with Naomi. See, five months after Breana was born, King Unomaraq and his, at the time, second in command Arthur Locke had summoned Naomi to leave New Orleans and come to the capital and give the king some legal advice on a classified matter. That took about three and a half weeks. The officer directly under Arthur, was a man by the name of Rickman and he tried to seduce her. It obviously didn't work and he got very angry for her refusing him. On her last day, Rickman ambushed her and…sexually assaulted her; however, she fought him the entire way and unintentionally shoved him into a lit fire place. We think because of the noise, Arthur Locke came in and saw the affects what'd happened. Being a kind man, Arthur let Naomi go but commanded her to never speak of this again for her and her family's safety. Which infuriated Rickman and according to some former workers that're now here, he plotted revenge. And a month later, we suspect that he executed his plan because Naomi's husband was killed and then, surprisingly, on the battle field Arthur was killed as well. I mean again we know who did it, but who's going to go against the King and his new right hand man. Anyway, as for Breana's part of the story, two years ago we found out the full extent of Rickman's revenge as he had someone kidnap Jett and Breana from their home in New Orleans. At that time they were nine and six years old. Needless to say, things got really crazy and hectic. Over the course a month and a half, Breana suffered the most psychologically out of the two. Breana was told that she was going to be given as a gift for the visiting Kromaggs: Arturo and Bennish."

"Oh bloody hell," loudly groaned Arturo.

Harold didn't take notice to Arturo's outburst and took up the next part of the story. "These visitors were to talk and make plans with King Unomaraq about something that we still don't know. But regardless, Breana shared a cell with your double Quinn. Breana's said that although he was a little distant, she did confide in him for a little bit before she was rescued. Essentially, the rescue task force was able to find the kids was because of Adira. Adira had went back to her favorite swamp in New Orleans to further train herself and according to her, she's able to 'see' the whole world from this swamp and was able to locate Jett and Breana. From there the task force went to rescue the kids and several other palace prisoners. But what they didn't know until they got there was that Adira and her friend Sokka snuck out to join them and save Jett and Breana. Once they were there, the other officers couldn't send them back and used their skills to get in and rescue at least two hundred people! The only problem is…when Adira, Sokka, and one of the officers named Vance they found a few Kromaggs eating some tiny one foot tall humans they took from another Earth."

"Whoa. That's terrifying for anybody," said Wade.

"Young Breana wasn't…" Arturo trailed off not knowing how to finish his question.

"No, No! Thankfully neither of the kids were sexually abused and all of their limbs were intact. They were covered in bruises but Breana never opened up to anyone about any details of those bruises. In that mission, we lost a few of the rescue officers during this rescue…suicide mission. But everyone of the rescuees were safe and are here now."

"What about the Quinn that was locked up with Breana?" asked Wade.

"He…was already dead when the officers got there. Again, Breana never said what happened to him. Quite frankly we were lucky to get this much out of her and then piece together some other things from the other former inmates. The other tragedy is that because of the break in, King Unomaraq blew up a random city and kills the ten guards that were on duty."

"What happened after that?"

"Once the kids were reunited with Naomi, she decided to move here and she also makes sure her kids never leave the underground compound. It's just too dangerous."

Yikes, thought Rembrandt, These stories keep getting worse and worse.

"Is there anything anyone can do for her?" asked Wade.

"What we've been doing I supposed Ms. Welles. Finding a way for them and everyone else here to get to their destined new world. Am I right, Mr. and Mrs. Lee?"

"That's definitely a start. We can only hope that time will heal her," said Wendy with Harold nodding in agreement.

With that said and settling into the minds and hearts of the sliders, Rembrandt rubbed his hands together and said, "Well let's not let her or anyone else down! Let's get back to work."

The sliders nodded in response and got back to work with a new vigor.

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

That same night, Harold and Dr. Timincin had to close the lab early for a classified meeting they had with Romo. Thus, the sliders currently found themselves eating their dinner with Dorian in the huge community cafeteria.

They were sitting at a large picnic table eating soggy baby carrots, a medium sized cut of unknown meat, and a small cup of peaches.

As they were all talking amongst each other about the day's events, Wade couldn't help but giggle at Dorian. The teenager was working and eating at the same time. He was seated across from her and on the other side of his tray was a blue print.

Dorian really is a Mallory, Wade thought with a smile and another giggle. At her giggles, Quinn looked at his friend at his side and asked, "What's so funny Wade?"

"Oh nothing," replied Wade. Quinn squinted at his friend and before he could press her, Dorian called out to someone passing by their table.

"Hey Adira!" called Dorian.

At his call, a young thin girl with clear light brown skin color and curly long hair that reached a little beyond her shoulders approached them at their table. She had a very confident demeanor surrounding her despite her age. She wore simple clothes. A pink hoodie, tan khakis, and surprisingly no shoes.

"Hey Dorian. What's up?"

"Just working. But I really want to know, were you responsible for that mud prank earlier today?"

"Me?! Why I don't know what you're talkin' about. I thought, as my brother, you were supposed to give me the benefit of the doubt."

Dorian stared at her for a moment unfazed. Dorian then asked, "Did you do it?"

"Well yeah, but that's not the point!" exclaimed Adira.

"So you're Adira. We've heard a lot about you. You're practically hero." Rembrandt said with admiration filling his voice.

Adira then stopped mid rant at a laughing Dorian to address the previous statement. "Nah. Not a hero. I just like breaking rules!"

"Well I'm Wade. This is Quinn, Rembrandt, and Professor Arturo," introduced Wade.

"Nice to meet you guys," Adira said without looking at them really specifically.

As she brushed her hand against the table, her hand brushed against the blue print. "What's this?"

"It's a blue print."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out Hawkeye. But what's on it? What's it for?" Adira said semiserious with a playful expression plastered across her face.

But that's when the sliders noticed something very important about the young girl in front of them.

Something that they had forgotten from the stories they were told in the days before. Adria's pupils were flat, dull, and had no color to them. Adira was indeed blind.

"Right, right. It's a blue print for the Q.E.D. machine. We're going to test the new metal coating on it soon. Say could you help us with it? We need some strong earth benders."

"Course! How can I, the strongest earthbender, turn my brother down. Besides it'll be fun. Where's it gonna be?" asked Adira.

"When we test it we can come get you if that'll help," offered Quinn. However, the young slider didn't realize the mistake he had made by this offer. Adira then turned her sightless eyes at him and stared silently for a few moments.

The silence was tense and Quinn squirmed under her glare. Then finally she spoke, "Look. I didn't ask for help and I don't need help. Got it? Good." Without waiting for a reply, Adira moved her head in the direction of Dorian and asked him, "Now I'll ask again: where is it going to be?"

It was evident to the sliders that Adira was fiercely independent. Dorian already knew this and didn't blink when she addressed Quinn so forcefully. Once she directed her question more pointedly at him, Dorian replied, "We're not sure when yet but we're probably going to do it outside behind the mountain."

"Cool! Let me know when you wanna test it." But then Adira continued with a smile on her face, "You're loving this aren't you?"

"Well yeah! You should really see what we're doing! This stuff is awesome," Dorian says with unbridled joy. His excitement caused the others at the table to chuckle and giggle in response.

"Dorian, you look like a kid getting a gift," commented Wade.

"I can't help it. We don't get to do this kinda stuff all the time. Have you seen it yet Wade?"

Before Wade could answer Adira turned her sightless eyes toward her and said with a teasing tone, "Don't worry Wade if you haven't yet. Take it from me, once you've seen nothing the first time, you've seen it a thousand times."

The spoon full of peaches Wade had scooped up slipped off her utensil as she stared at the young child in shock. Then out of nowhere, Adira started to laugh at her own joke.

After a few moments her laughter started to die down, Adira then turned her attention back to her brother.

"Look I gotta go. I have pranks to go pull."

"Adira," Dorian said in a warning tone.

"Oh don't be a downer. This prank is gonna rock!"

"What is it then?" asked Quinn.

"Now see, that'd be telling." Adira said as she walked away laughing again.

As she left, Rembrandt looked around the professor to Dorian, who was seated on the other side, and said,

"Your sister sure is something."

"Heh, yeah she is. But she's certainly one of a kind."

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

After dinner Arturo broke away from the group and headed back to the lab. The Englishman was still troubled by the earlier events of the day with Breana LaLache. Her fear still stabbed at his heart. Thus, Arturo sat down at a work table with several parts of one timer laid across it. Behind him is a large chalk board with an unfinished sliding formula written upon its surface.

Quinn and Arturo were still trying to apply the formula to the unbuilt timers. But Arturo is more determined than ever to solve this problem. Thus, Arturo started to work on the formula on the board.  
About an hour later, Arturo was still working on the formula on the board. Then the glass door opened and in walked Quinn. The younger man was dressed in the pajamas they were supplied the first night they had come to the compound. The pajamas were a dark grey short sleeved shirt and light grey flannel pants.

"Professor, are you ready to call it a night?"

"Maybe later Quinn," Arturo said as he wearily rubbed his eyes.

The slip in formality made the young genius smile. But he still asked, "Are you alright Professor?"  
Arturo took a deep breath before answering, "No my boy. Quite frankly, I am not. We're on an approaching deadline and now more than ever, we can't afford to let these people down."

"Yeah but that's not all, is it? Come on, you can tell me. After everything that's happened this shouldn't be that difficult."

Arturo gave the young man a half smile. "Indeed. We've certainly seen the best and absolute worst of each other." Arturo then approached his former student and clapped a heavy hand on the younger man's shoulder. "It's this business with Young Breana LaLache. The fact that I have a Kromagg double is shocking enough but one that had terrorized two young children is more despicable than I can even begin to fathom yet alone And worse yet...regardless of her mother explaining the situation the child still is terrified that I'm the same monster."

"Professor...it's not your fault. The fact is any of our doubles can choose to be evil. We've seen this time and again."

"It's true but this feels different. I can only imagine how you feel about Mr. LaLache."

Quinn sighed and shrugged, "Actually, I'm still reeling from it. I don't know really where to begin with my emotions."

Arturo nodded in understanding then patted Quinn's shoulder again. "Well Mr. Mallory we're not going to solve all of our problems tonight. Go on to bed now, eh. You need rest my boy."

"So this is one of those 'Do As I Say Not As I Do' moment's," Quinn said through a big yawn.

Smiling at how much younger his student looked in this moment as the young man was trying desperately to blink the sleep from his eyes. Arturo said, "Just this once son. Unlike you," he said with a bit of tease in his voice, "sleep isn't beckoning me at this moment. And instead of looking at the ceiling all night, I'd rather do something useful. Something that'll ease the burdens of the people here. Something that'll help insure our safety."

"Can I help? You don't need to be up alone," offered Quinn.

Once again, Arturo found himself smiling at the young man who he thought of as his own son. However, Arturo declined saying, "No my boy. I'll be fine. Now go get some sleep. Or else I'll have to lecture you on the properties of a good night's rest."

Chuckling at the mock threat, Quinn countered saying, "See that'd be scary if I wasn't your student and if I didn't enjoy your lectures. But I'm only complying because I'm about to fall asleep right on these work tables."

Arturo chuckled softly as he walked Quinn to the door and watched his student make his way down the dark hall to the bunk quarters. Once he was sure Quinn was truly going to bed, Arturo walked back into the lab and started picking at the many parts scattered across the table in front of the chalk board.

Unbeknownst Arturo and Quinn, a slender silhouette figure was standing in the shadows of the hallway. This person had heard the entire conversation. What the figure heard had shocked and touched their heart.

Quietly, the figure made their way slowly back to their room to ponder about the conversation that they had just heard. Not truly knowing how to feel about it.

Just go to sleep, the figure thought to itself, this can't distract you from your busy day tomorrow.

With that final thought, the figure pulled the covers up around them and allowed sleep to engulf them.

**..:TBC:..**


	8. Chapter 8

A Few Days Later, Arturo found himself burning the night once again as he was working through a formula and applying it to the Q.E.D. timers. He, and Quinn, had made several breakthroughs and they were so close to solving all the problems with the timers.

This night though, the heavy set scholar was so focused on his work that he didn't hear someone come into the lab. Then suddenly a dainty hand was placed onto Arturo's bulky shoulder, only to be met by the Englishman's startled yelp. Immediately turning to see who was there Arturo's startled eyes met by Naomi's concerned eyes.  
Patting his chest to calm his racing heart, Arturo says, "Oh Ms. LaLache. You startled me."

"Sorry Professor. I heard that for the past two nights that you've been burning the midnight oil. So I just thought I'd come and check on you. But it seems to me that you're working this night away as well," replied Naomi.

Arturo, leaning back in his chair and stretching his sore back, responded "Well madam, I feel as if we're so close with this. I just can't simply stop."

Naomi smiled at his resolve. "I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate you working this hard but I can't let you run yourself into the ground."

"Your concern is appreciated but unnecessary. I'm fine."

With an unimpressed raised eyebrow and placing her hands on her hips, Naomi asked,

"Uh-huh. So when's the last time you slept?"

Arturo paused and had to think about that before answering, "About…two days ago I believe."

Naomi nodded before taking the big man's arm and tugged him into a standing position.

Arturo put his tools down as he allowed himself to be pulled forward by the small yet strong woman.

Once the sleep deprived scholar was standing, Naomi linked arms with the man and asked, "And when was the last time you've eaten?"

As they turned the lights out of the lab, Arturo actually thought about this question. In all honesty, he didn't remember. Arturo knew he missed a few meals and turned down every offer to eat his sliding family brought to him. But how many that was, he had no idea. And the more he thought about it, Arturo realized that he's never missed so many meals before. Especially on purpose. Unfortunately, to his absolute horror, before he could answer verbally his stomach growled grumpily and quite loudly.

Naomi smiled a crooked smile and patted his ample stomach gently with her free hand.

She then steered him in the direction of the large kitchen and as they entered Arturo couldn't help but look around. The spacious kitchen was rustic in design, with its robust cabinetry, an island made out of smooth rock, and rough mountain walls. On the right side of the kitchen were large cooking equipment such as mixers, blenders, and meat slicers and grinders. Set up against the far back wall was a large, yet out of date, looking commercial stove top oven. To the right of the large oven was three large sinks and to the left of the oven was more counter top space. The finishing touch was a medium sized table in the corner of an unoccupied area of the kitchen. Regardless of its size, the kitchen had a comfortable warmth.

Once the professor stopped taking in the new surroundings, he said, "Look madam, I don't want to be a bother. I can wait until morning for some breakfast."

"It's no trouble at all. Besides, I haven't eaten today either. So I would really appreciate some company."

Arturo pursed his lips and responded, "You're a true lawyer Ms. LaLache."

Naomi threw her head back and laughed. A delightful laugh that gave Arturo a pleasant view of her neck. But he had to mentally shake out of his revere and mentally chastised himself for such thoughts. Not only was there no time for these suggestive thoughts but also that she was the mother to the little girl who thought he was a living monster.

With that cold dose of reality washing over him, Arturo approached their former lawyer, who was taking out some vegetables and a big pot.

"Since you are quite persistent in doing this, at least allow me to help."

"You know how to cook?"

"Contrary to what our lifestyle demands, I generally don't like fast foods. I'd much rather cook meals myself."

Naomi, with an impressed expression on her face, nodded and motioned at the various vegetables on the cutting board. "Alright then Chef Arturo. Why don't you mince the vegetables while I clean the chicken."

But as Arturo approached the counter and picked up the knife, Naomi teasingly added

"Oh. And try not to hurt yourself."

Arturo threw an unamused expression her way before starting his new assignment. And in silence the two adults worked fast but efficiently. Not too long after they found themselves working smoothly and efficiently in the large kitchen. However, at one point in their cooking, Arturo let out a low groan.

At his groan, Naomi turned around and asked, "What is it?"

At her question, Arturo wordlessly turned around and showed the lawyer a shallow but obvious thin slice with blood oozing out. And despite herself, Naomi started to laugh and found that she couldn't control the laughter once it started. Arturo joined in with her laughter as well.

Once their laughter died down, Naomi wiped away some stray tears from her eyes and approached him with a wet paper towel in hand. She took his hand and started to wipe away the blood and said, "Press this to the wound until it stops. Once it does we'll put a bandage on it."

"Thanks," Arturo said dryly, which in turn caused Naomi to giggle again. Due to the cut being so shallow, the blood stopped fairly immediately and Naomi retrieved a bandage from a drawer and wrapped Arturo's finger.

"Why don't you make the salad," offered Naomi.

"Alright, but only because there aren't any more vegetables to mince," Arturo countered with a smirk. Naomi smiled as she handed him the lettuce.

The two worked in sync as they were preparing their late night dinner. Then a thought occurred to Arturo and he broke the silence asked, "How's your daughter Breana?"

At the sudden question and that he was even asking Naomi was stunned silent for a moment but when she recovered she answered, "She's fine now. I tried to explain that you're not the same Arturo. But don't expect her to be comfortable around you any time soon."

Arturo nodded in understanding but before he could say anything else, Naomi added

"Thank you for asking." After she said this, the sizzling and delicious Gumbo was finished and then Naomi dished out both of their plates.

The two soon sat down at the medium sized table in the kitchen and dug into their meal in a comfortable silence. After a while though, Naomi said, "So I'm very curious. What's it like going through the portal?"

"Honestly. For myself…well a man of my size has the aerodynamic properties of a small grand piano," Arturo responds seriously, which causes Naomi to desperately try and conceal her amusement and giggles behind her napkin.

"Now the passage through the portal can be painless," continued Arturo, "But the arrival on impact is a different matter because it's jarring enough without Mr. Brown's insistence to aim for me as a landing pad." This statement broke Naomi and she started to laugh but in between her laughter she was apologizing.

Arturo shook his head and said, "No, no please don't apologize. You see, I'm simply waiting for the perfect opportunity to aim for him and flatten him on impact." This response made Naomi laugh even harder but once she calmed down, the lawyer said,

"Just when I thought I had you figured out, you go and do something like that. You're certainly an odd one."

"Are you saying that you've been trying to put me and my friends in a box madam?" Arturo said teasingly.

"Not a 'box', but it is within my profession to read people as fast as possible and then align what I see with the facts presented."

"An excellent defense Ms. LaLache," commented Arturo but then noticed a strange look on the woman's face. He didn't have to wait long for the reason behind it as Naomi responded to his previous statement.

"Look. Let's drop the formalities. You don't have to be so formal by always calling me 'Mizz.' We're both on the same side here."

"And what would you prefer me to call you then. Duchess LaLache?"

"As enticing as that would be, 'Naomi' will be just fine," Naomi said looking at him before continuing, "And because of this, what may I call you?"

Unable to ignore the question, he tried pitifully to deflect by saying, "'Emperor' has a nice ring to it."

At his deadpan statement, Naomi found herself doubled over with laughter. Arturo truly couldn't help himself from enjoying Naomi's company and laughter. Even though they were both at his expense. Then all too soon, her laughter died down and Naomi wiped away a stray tear at the corner of her eye.

Finally Naomi said, "I'd prefer to call you Max. Would that be okay?"

Arturo hesitated but relented. In noticing his hesitation, Naomi asked, "What's wrong?"

"In all honesty, I despise my first name. Always have. So I must say, when you do call me 'Max', please don't call that in front of the others."

"Alright I can do that. It makes me feel special; however, does everyone –including your sliding family-call you 'Professor'?"

"Yes, they do. But only just recently under dire situations they will call me some variant of 'Max'." But before she could ask any other questions concerning his name, Arturo changed the subject, "Concerning your earlier inquiry about 'sliding', are you becoming anxious?"

Naomi, seeing through his diversion let it slide for now, answered, "A little yes. I'm worried about a lot of things these days. And my work here has made me retire from law totally. I wasn't expecting my last case to be your group but it was obviously for the best."

Arturo made a sound in the back of this throat as he lifted his took a drink from his glass of water. As he set the glass down, he responded, "I can only hope that your trust in our abilities will get your people out of here in time."

Naomi looked at him with total trust in her eyes and said, "I'm certain you will."

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

That same night, back in the sliders room, Wade and Quinn found that they couldn't sleep.

"Psst! Quinn are you awake?" whispered Wade.

"Yeah. Can't sleep either huh?" replied Quinn.

"Nope. Since we can't sleep wanna go for a walk?" offered Wade.

"Sure. Just be quiet. We don't want to wake up the Cryin' Man." In response,

Rembrandt-who was still asleep- snored just a little louder. His snore caused Wade and Quinn to giggle quietly as they tip-toed out of the room.

As the two young sliders made their way down the hall they heard some people coming up behind them.

"Hey guys!" said Derek's voice from behind them. The two young sliders turned around and were greeted by Derek, Dorian, and two other girls with them. One woman, who looked to be Wade and Quinn's age, was a tall beautiful Caucasian woman. She appeared to be physically fit but not overly so. She had stunning hazel eyes and long dark brunette hair pulled up into a short bun.

The other was a short beautiful young woman, who appeared to be Dorian's same age.

She had wavy dark brown hair and light brown eyes that shown bright with a hidden intelligence. She was wearing a blue short sleeved shirt that complemented her bronzy-golden complexion.

"Hi!" greeted Wade and Quinn simultaneously.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" conversationally asked Dorian.

"Yeah, we thought we'd just walk around till we get sleepy or something."

"Well we were going to go for a night swim. Care to join us?"

"Like skinny dipping?"

The others tried to not laugh, but failed miserably and started giggling. Derek took it upon himself to answer Quinn saying, "No nothing like that. There's swim wear where we're going."

Wade and Quinn looked at each other and silently agreed. "Alright then. Lead the way!"

Not long after, they arrived at the swimming hole inside the mountain. The swimming hole itself was a rough circular shape and about eighty feet long. The water was crystal clear and was surrounded by grey and redish colored rocks. The rocks themselves were surrounded by plants and shrubs of various sizes and all had different but welcoming scents. On the surrounding ground was lush grass as the water from the swimming hole fed into the ground. "Oh my goodness," whispered Wade as she was unable to take her eyes off of the beautiful area.

Alex gently tapped the female slider's arm to get her attention. Wade reluctantly tore her eyes away and looked expectantly at Alex.

"Come with us. We'll show you where you can change into the swim wear we have," said Alex as Lisa gently led Wade away with them to a hidden door a little bit away.

"Come on Quinn we can change in the other room," commented Dorian.

Within a few minutes of each other, both groups came out and lowered themselves into the large swimming hole.

Once they were in their swim trunks, they all slowly dropped into the water. For a moment or two the occupants simply bobbed in the surprisingly warm water. Only occasionally, someone would bump into the smooth rocks that surrounded the swimming hole. The rocks had been smoothed out thanks to the earthbenders who resided within the compound.

Letting out a relaxed sigh, Wade said, "This is so relaxing and tranquil."

"I know right," Alex agreed, "It's honestly my favorite time to come swimming. There's nobody around but us! This makes the beautiful atmosphere so much more beautiful and quiet." But then the tranquil moment was dashed by Dorian, who started to splash the girls.

"DORIAN!" Lisa sputtered as she tried to shield herself from the onslaught of water being splashed at her and the others. But then Quinn and Derek started in on the fun and then a full out splashing war had broken out between them.

Once the splashing had come to a natural close, Alex couldn't help but notice Quinn's well-toned, but not overly muscular, body. The young genius looked even more handsome with his hair slopped back away from his eyes as water dripped from his face.

"So Alex how long have you been here?" asked Quinn not noticing the woman was checking him out. But because she didn't answer for a moment, Dorian ribbed the young woman who noticeably shook herself and said, "Oh, oh yeah. Um, I'm really nothing special. Honestly, my life before I came here was okay. My parents and I got along before they died. They were actually older so they died of old age several months ago actually. Before I came here, I was working my dream job as a P.I. for a big time law firm. Actually, it was during one of my cases to find someone and they were in hiding here! I met with several of the people here and decided that they were right. Something bad was going down and no one was talking about it. So, I told my bosses I couldn't find the mark and because it was a pretty massive retainer they had lost because I 'couldn't' find the mark they fired me. Once they did, I came back here and made it home. For fun, I like to play board games and keep up to date with my hand-to-hand combat skills."

"Really? Nice. What type of combat skills," inquired Wade.

"I'm got three black belts in two different forms of martial arts."

"That's so cool!" commented Wade.

"What about you Lisa? What's your story?"

"Like a lot of people here it's based around tragedy. I was only four at the time but my mom, Zoe, was working overtime and couldn't pick me up from daycare and so my dad came to pick me up from the center; however, on the way home we were run off the road by some thieves who then robbed my dad. They, uh, they then killed him right in front of me. They didn't touch me. Why, I don't know. But all I remember is being so helpless. I couldn't reach him. I couldn't do anything. It was thanks to some kind stranger that came over because of my crying. She found my dad's phone and called my mother. It was a defining moment in my life really. I decided from that age that I'd be a doctor and help people. Not just any doctor but the youngest. And I succeeded. At sixteen I graduated from medical school and all up until three months ago, I was a physician at San Francisco General Hospital." Lisa said with pride.

"Amazing Lisa. But what happened three months ago?" asked Quinn.

"I was fired for going against procedure to save a patient's life. See, the patient had a DNR order on file but we had an Angel of Mercy kind of nurse on staff and didn't know it at the time. When I came to check in on my patient and I saw that the patient was being suffocated by this nurse, I knocked said nurse out with an empty bed pan and revived the patient. But because I did this, the patient nor more bosses were happy about the situation. So the nurse was sent to jail and I was fired," explained Lisa.

"Oh come on! That's just not fair," exclaimed Wade with Quinn nodding in agreement.

"Hey, I totally agree but what's done is done. And besides, I can't complain when we plan to leave this world. But they keep me occupied with the injured and maimed here. So I'm still putting my degree to work."

"Not bad at all. You guys are all really accomplished," complimented Wade.

"Thanks but it'll all mean something once we leave," said Lisa.

"I can understand that. But that just means that we should be heading back," Quinn said as he let out a big yawn.

"Yeah, this swim really knocked me out," agreed Wade.

"I'm not tired just yet," said Dorian.

"Well you guys enjoy. Thanks for the swim!" said Quinn as he and Wade made their way to the get changed back into their night wear to head back to their room.

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

The next day after breakfast, the sliders were just about to go their separate ways off to work; however, a ruckus caused them all to stop and go investigate. Down a hallway the sliders haven't been to before, was a disturbing scene unfolding.

The scene was of two young boys being harassed by Captain Beckett and a few of her soldiers.

"You're hurting us! Let us go," exclaimed the smaller boy of the two.

"I will once you tell me what you saw!" barked Maggie.

"We told you we didn't see anything," yelled the taller and older looking boy.

"You're both lying! Mrs. Tweek said she saw you both leave the compound. Now tell me!"

"Come on Cap," said one of the soldiers, "Let's just go. They look pretty certain that they don't know anything!"

"Shut up! They do know something. Now help me haul their little asses back to my office," commanded Maggie.

In response to her command, the smaller boy pushed Maggie hard and he unintentionally let out a blast of air from his palms. Which in turn, sent Maggie flying back a little ways. But she didn't stay down. In fact, as she stood up and approached the boys, she snatched a rifle from one of her soldier's hands.

"Alright you little bastards. I want to see you try that again!" threatened Maggie as she rifle cocked at the two boys.

Aghast at what they saw, the sliders ran toward the horrid scene. Once they were close enough, Rembrandt knock the weapon from the captain's hands and then Quinn spins Maggie around and envelops her in a bear hug.

The three other soldiers were surprised that their fearless leader was caught off guard. But they were even more surprised that Wade, Arturo, and Rembrandt went after them. Wade had kicked the soldier in front of her in the gut. Rembrandt delivered an uppercut to the soldier nearest to him. And Arturo slammed his forearm against the soldier's nose next to him. All which were fell to the ground moaning in pain.

But before anyone could ask any questions, Maggie had drove her heal into Quinn's foot.

Bellowing in pain, Quinn released her; however, Wade had cocked a rifle at Maggie.

"Say hello to my little friend, bitch," said Wade with a cocked eyebrow.

Maggie raised her hands in a non-defense gesture as Arturo asked Quinn, "Are you alright my boy?"

Quinn, who was hobbling on one foot, answered Arturo, "Yeah Professor, I'll be alright."

Turning his attention to an unremorseful Maggie, he said, "Alright lady, I got some questions for you."

"And I don't intent to answer any of them," Maggie replied stiffly.

Arturo gave a hard look to the Captain and said tersely, "Captain have you no conscience? These are simply children. What have they possibly done to deserve being treated as so badly?"

"Don't waste your breath professor. She doesn't have a soul. And her drones here are no better. They feel big and bad because they can threaten little kids," Wade said harshly. Because of her words the soldiers, except Maggie, had the decency to look ashamed.

Rembrandt nodded in agreement of Wade's assessment and added, "You all have all of ten seconds to get away from here." To backup his statement, Wade cocked the gun again which in turn caused the soldiers, except for Maggie again, to jump.

With that sound, the soldiers ran swiftly away from the scene and Maggie looked at the retreating backs of her men with disdain.

"Leave Maggie. And don't bother these boys again," said Quinn.

Maggie looked at the sliders surrounding her and then at the boys who stood behind Rembrandt and Arturo. "You all are going to pay for this. Don't think I'll forget this for even a second," the captain threatened before she left with a huff.

"Are you kids alright?" asked Rembrandt as he finally gets a good look at the boys.

The obvious older boy was slim and of average height with a russet colored complexion and he wore his jet black hair pinned up in half bun ponytail style.

The younger boy, with espresso brown skin tone, had brown eyes and his black hair was cut in the style of a lineup and buzz cut.

"Yeah thanks to you guys."

"Why was Captain Beckett doing that to you two?" asked Wade.

"She thinks we snuck out of the compound and saw something that might've meant something about her husband's death."

With a cocked eye brow, Arturo asked, "Well did you?"

"No. It really wasn't us. Captain Beckett knows that a kid air bender and kid water bender left the haven and that they'd have to be pretty high level benders. So she thinks it was us."

"Yeah and she forgets or at least ignores the fact that they're tons of kid benders here.

And more than a few are high level benders! Not just me and Malcolm here."

"Malcolm? You're Zoe's son?" asked Rembrandt.

"Yes sir that's me and this is Sokka Lee," replied Malcolm.

"Ah, Harold and Wendy's son," commented Wade.

"Who are you guys anyway? Haven't seen any of you around before," Sokka said tersely.

"Dude, really? Rude much," commented Malcolm. Sokka merely sighed dramatically but before he could rephrase his statement Zoe and a little boy by her side came up to them.

However, as she drew closer to them she saw the bruises on their arms. "Are you boys alright? What's happened" asked Zoe with much concern.

"We're fine Mom. But it's thanks to these guys," said Malcolm as he motioned his arm towards the sliders. "Sorry we still didn't get your names," continued Malcolm.

"Right sorry little man. I'm Rembrandt but they call me Remmy. This is Quinn, Wade, and the Professor."

"Nice to meet you guys," Malcolm and Sokka said simultaneously.

"And what's your name pal?" asked Quinn to the little boy who came along side Zoe.

"I'm Joon, Sokka's little brother," said the olive hued boy. Joon had brown eyes and thick Hershey chocolate dark hair. Like the other boys, Joon seemed friendly and optimistic. It was very evident when he asked excitedly, "Hey aren't you guys helping us fix the portal?"

"Yeah," Quinn said with surprise, "We're working on it anyway."

"This is obviously not a secret anymore," commented Arturo.

"Was it really ever," countered Wade.

Zoe answered saying with a smile, "Not really considering the topic."

The sliders paused for a second and then nodded in agreement.

"Well then we should probably get to work. It was nice to meet you boys," said Rembrandt.

"Will we see you guys again?" asked Malcolm.

"Sure thing little man!" answered Rembrandt. All three boys smiled at the reassuring and overall kind attitude the sliders showed them. And with that, they all went their separate ways.

**~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~**

While the sliders were eating dinner that night, a group had sat at the empty table next to them. The new group were their new associates: Dorian, Alex, Derek, Lisa, Sokka, Adira, Malcolm, and Joon.

"Hello everyone," Derek greeted the sliders on behalf of his table.

"Hi!" greeted Wade, "How're you guys doing?"

"Pretty good. Thanks again for saving us earlier," said Malcom.

"No problem little buddy!" replied Rembrandt. But before anyone could say anything else, someone started to speak over the loud speaker, which naturally shushed the entire cafeteria from any further chattering.

Over the loud speaker Naomi's voice could be heard saying, "Hello everyone. I'm speaking to you all right now because the other founders and I have some devastating news. Today we lost three great people today. On their way back from the city with new materials and other miscellaneous items, Krissy Parker, Omi Taggart, and Isaac Stein all died. We received an urgent call from Isaac requesting backup; however, by the time backup arrived they and at least six of the attackers had were already dead."

The community cafeteria was a mixture of gasps and angry whispers due to the announcement. Naomi continued in a shocked up voice saying, "We were told by our leading officer who responded, Vance Wagner that it looked to be about fifteen different sets of foot prints who attacked our three scouts. Why? At this time we're unsure but in a few moments we're going to give our respects to our fallen comrades with a moment of silence and then in song."

After Naomi finished the announcement, everyone in the community cafeteria was silent. And within moments, the giant cafeteria's atmosphere was changed from its usual chatty tones to a mournful climate. The sliders were also distraught because of the announcement. During their stay within the compound, they had gotten to know quite a lot of people and Krissy was one of them.

Rembrandt was brought back to the memory of Krissy bringing all of the horses across the desert to aid them when they had escaped the labor camp. The young woman was like Wade in a lot of ways. Krissy was spunky, independent, and very kind. Rembrandt was then jolted out of his thoughts by a sudden loud wail from a distance.

Due to the wail, Rembrandt looked around but his eyes settled over at the table where their new friends were sitting. He saw them trying to desperately comfort each other.

But it was Malcolm's words that got him to leave his seat. "Why did Krissy die? Why do they all have to die?" Malcolm said through his tears as he held onto his sister Lisa.

Rembrandt crossed over to their neighboring table and knelt down beside him. The singer wrapped his arms around the young bender and held him. Not knowing what to say, he simply held Malcolm as he cried for his friends. Looking at the boy's older sister, who was just as distraught, Rembrandt held out an inviting arm for her as well and she tentatively went into the older man's arms. As she was in his arms, Lisa found comfort and couldn't help the tears that flowed out.

The other sliders joined Rembrandt in comforting their new friends either with hugs or with a comforting hand on their shoulder as they all mourned the loss of the fallen ones.

Soon, over the loud speaker, a group of women started to sing a beautifully haunting Latvian folk song. The song got really chilling when one of the sopranos sung their wails of 'Aaaah' over the harmony of the others.

_Kur tu biji, bāleliņi, Kad es tevi neredzēju?_

_Tad es laikam rudzus sēju, Kad tu mani neredzēji._

_Kur tu biji, (Aaaah Aaaah) bāleliņi, Kad es balti kājas āvu?_

_Tad es laikam sienu pļāvu, Kad tu balti kājas āvi._

_kur tu biji, bāleliņi, Kad es gauži noraudāju?_

_Tad es krogā diži dzēru, Tavas skumjas neredzēju._

_Kur tu biji, bāleliņi, Kad es tevi neredzēju?_

And just like that the song ended. Wade knew immediately that she wasn't going to get a good night's rest until these people and her sliding group gets out of this world. And from what she could tell, the others were feeling the same way she was according to their individual expressions.

Soon after a new song began, but it was apparent that the community had been through this before as a quieter conversation broke out about the fallen ones. They were talking amongst each other about stories of the fallen comrades.

Lisa started to recount times she had with Krissy. "Krissy and I were really close. She was an amazing…well thief. Most of the high tech things we have, or at least were able to get successfully, was because of her. Krissy was always testing her skills and because of this I was always the one to patch her up. Because of her childhood, she didn't trust people easily but once she did she was in it for…life." At her own statement, Lisa started to choke up again.

Picking up where she left off, Alex asked, "Do you guys remember when Vance and Krissy went on a recon mission? Remember, they were supposed to gather information about some CEO and recover his passcodes to his lab?"

At this Derek started to chuckle and responded, "Do I ever! Vance advised her to find out his deepest wish and surprise him with it to gain his trust but, of course, Krissy thought that would take wayyy to long."

"So what did she do?" asked Arturo.

"Krissy disguised herself as a secretary and walked into the man's office and asked the CEO if the rag she was holding smelled like chloroform. And before he could even react to such a crazy question, Krissy shoved the rag into his face til he passed out a few seconds later!" Derek answered as he and the others dissolved into laughter.

In between fits of laughter, Quinn asked, "Wh-what… did Vance say in response?"

"Vance was in shock! And Krissy told him, while he was unable to speak, 'What? He's gonna wake up in like three hours.' She really thought that was okay," Derek said while the others laughter started again.

With these happy memories playing through the groups minds, they were all settled in a content silence for the time being. All, that is, except for Arturo. The British academian's mind wondered to his and Quinn's work in the lab. Arturo could only hope that with the new improvements he and his young protégé had installed will work for tomorrow's testing.

**..:TBC:..**

* * *

**Author's Foot note:** For those who don't know this piece, Kur tu biji Balelini truly is a Latvian folk song. I had to sing this in choir and the experience was truly moving. Our guest conductor was from South Africa and he wanted us to truly feel this desperation and sorrow of the piece. And he described to us certain examples from South Africa that are just too heart breaking and terrifying to write. But we, as a choir, were able to understand where he and the piece itself was coming from. Here is the English translation of the lyrics. Oh, wait, FYI Balelini is a name given to a beloved brother/friend.

NOW here are the translated lyrics. Where have you been Balelini? Why have I not seen you?

_I have been sowing grain, that's why you did not see me._

_Where have you been Balelini? When I wore my best clothes?_

_I was ploughing the hay, when you wore your best clothes._

_Where have you been Balelini? When I cried out for you?_

_I was having a drink, and I did not see your grief._

_Where have you been Balelini? Why have I not seen you?_

Isn't this soo sad?! But I thought it was appropriate for the section of the story. Hopefully, it wasn't too much of a downer for you guys.


	9. Chapter 9

The following day, Arturo and Quinn, their day is to be very important. The main scientists- Dr. Timincin, Harold, Arturo, and Quinn- along with Dorian, Wade, Rembrandt, and Derek are currently about to test the new metal coating in the lowest part of the compound: the fighting arena. The fighting arena had no special features and was fairly dark. The fighting arena only had a dirt floor all around.

The metal that was to be tested was hugely thick and was a twenty foot long rectangle. It was so large and heavy, that it took eight other people to wheal the metal into the fighting arena.

"Okay, so we finally got here. How exactly are we going to test this metal again, Dorian?" asked Quinn, as the eight other people left to go back to their work.

Dorian was gently inspecting the large metal propped against the wall and answered, "Well, I've asked Kakashi and Adira to come here and test the strength of the metal. They're the strongest benders here and with their bending they'll throw the full brunt of their power at the metal.  
This will show us whether or not that the methods we used to make and strengthen this metal worked or not."

Luckily, the group didn't have to wait long as Kakshi and Adira came in and approached them. Adira looked quite excited and couldn't, or at least wouldn't, conceal it. Which in turn caused her adopted older brother to snicker.

"Well, Adira what's got you so happy?" asked Dorian, with a knowing smile plastered across his face.

"Dude. I get to try my hardest to break something! This is the best day evaaa!" Adira exclaimed as she looked in his direction. Her contagious excitement caused the other occupants of the room to smile and snicker.

"So what're we to do?" asked Kakashi.

Adira, not caring about this part of the conversation wandered closer to the metal propped against the wall. As the adults were going back and forth about how much damage the two benders should inflict on the large metal, Adira was staring at the metal strangely and with intensity. The young earthbender was focusing on nothing but her hands and feet in conjunction with the metal in front of her. Adira's mouth gapped opened when she came closer to the metal. The more she focused, the more Adira realized that with her seismic sense she was able to 'see' the earth particles in the metal. Metal is just a mound of earth that's been purified! Adira thought in excitement.

Reaching her hands out and in a controlled speed, Adira started to forcefully shove her hands against the metal propped against the wall.

"Come on metal…budge," Adira whispered to herself. Adira started hitting the metal with more force and finally metal responded to her as she left a sizeable fist imprint. The indentation left her smiling and Adira then turned toward the adults and her brother.

Clearing her throat, Adira felt the other occupants turn to her and she said to Kakashi, "Look. I've got the perfect way to test this metal."

"Really? Like what?" asked Kakashi.

"Let's fight! Winner'll be known as the world's strongest bender," replied Adira.

"What? Adira, have you forgotten that Kakashi's the strongest avatar here? I mean he's taught you a ton of fighting techniques along with your refinement as a bender," Harold said gently.

Before Adira could refute, Kakashi spoke up saying, "No. Adira hasn't forgotten that but she's a formidable opponent. I may be her sensei but she's taught herself a lot. Things that I have yet to master myself." Squinting his lone eye at her, Kakashi didn't say anything else for a moment then started laughing. Once he calmed himself, Kakashi said with delight, "Alright Adira! If you want to fight I'm game! But the point is to test the metal. If you can show me how we're to test it in this fight I'll fight you for five minutes straight and Dr. Timincin will be our time keeper and referee. But we can't destroy the metal, if that's even possible. Sound good to you?"

"Hey wait a minute! Why do I have to be the ref?" Dr. Timincin complained. But Adira, taking no heed to the doctor, said, "Alright! This is going to be so sweet!" With that statement, Adira jogged a few feet away from the metal and then suddenly turned on her heel and launched herself toward the metal. The blind eartbender collided with the metal with tremendous force.

The adult occupants in the arena gasped in shock and their mouths hung agape at what they had all just witnessed. They had no idea what Adira was thinking and was further shocked when the metal immediately folded and molded itself around the blind girl's form.

Then mere moments later, a twenty foot humanoid figure clad completely in metal stood before them all. As the metal humanoid figure turned to face them, a smile etched itself onto the blank canvas of where the face would be and it lifted its hand and motioned its hand in the 'bring it on' motion.

Smiling behind his mask, Kakashi says, "Alright! So like our normal rules, first one out of the ring in these five minutes loses. Got it." Adira metal clad head nods in response.

And with that, Kakashi stomps on the ground; the stomp caused the entire arena to radiate and shake. Due to his stomp, Kakashi shaped the arena into having stairs running down to a lower, oval shaped fighting area. Kakashi and Adira would fight in the lower part while the others could watch from a semi safe distance away on the stairs above.

"Alright Doc, whenever you're ready," shouted Kakashi.

Sitting above, Dr. Timincin took a deep sigh and reluctantly brought out his pocket watch and yelled at the top of his lungs, "FIGHT!"

With the doctor's yell, Adira, still in the metal armor, had sunk into her horse stance and shook her hands to cause three large rocks to fling themselves at Kakashi.

Despite his mask obscuring his face from showing his emotions, Kakashi was astonished at Adira's strength and skill. The young girl never ceased to amaze him. But since he was her sensei, Kakashi knew how Adira thought. This first move proved that.

The grey haired man knew that Adira simply used moves such as these to test her opponents. Thus, these attacks were easy for him to deflect; however, from this point on Kakashi knew that Adira would be totally unpredictable with her attacks.

Like he thought he witnessed the earthbender take her next calculated movements. Adira moved forward, opened her arms with the palms of her hands facing her. Her stance never leaving its contact with the ground, as she swept her right foot out in front of her which caused a shock wave in the dirt floor that raised ridges on the ground and headed directly for Kakashi.

Not expecting the underground attack, Kakashi leapt into the air to dodge it; however, as he was dodging this attack Adira shot out her metal coated right arm and caused the metal to extend and wrap around his ankle. As Adira yanked him into the hard ground below, Kakashi's lone eye widened in shock.

Hitting the ground hard, Kakashi saw spots flying around his hand and only snaps out of his pain filled mind when he saw Adira charging for him. Narrowly missing her fist coming at him, Kakashi backflips several feet away.

Once he landed on his feet, Kakashi blasts an enormous amount of fire out of his left hand, but Adira stands there and takes the heat attack. Once the flames dissipate, Kakashi and the spectators are surprised to see that the metal withstood the attack. So much so that Adira launches a large bolder at him; however, Kakashi stops the bolder with a strong blast of wind.

At their safe distance away, the adults were mesmerized at the fight going on before them. Wade, especially, stared on incredulously. The brunette followed every attack and movement. Wade was quite impressed with the fighting prowess of Adira and how powerful her attacks were. But then the female sliders brought her hand to her mouth in shock as she witnessed Kakashi's new tactic.

Deciding to bring the fight in closer, Kakashi lifts the left side of his forehead protector to reveal his hidden eye. This eye, which he keeps hidden from the world, allowed him to see objects at a cellular level and copy others moves and abilities.

With his left eye released from its prison, Kakashi launches himself at the young earthbender and starts to kick at the metal clad chest with amazing speed. These attacks were unrelenting and Adira, unable to dodge something this close, lost her balance and Kakashi took this opportunity to grab Adira around the head and flip her over his back onto the ground. Not giving her a chance to recover, Kakashi created a glove made out of rocks and started to punch Adira's metal covered face.

While in this vulnerable position, Adira bends a part of the metal into a fist and punches Kakashi off of her. Hissing in pain, Kakashi isn't given time to recover as Adira creates a dust cloud that only allows the spectators above to see what's happening; however, Kakashi is left unable to see through the dirty cloud. At noticing that Kakashi was unaware of her near proximity to his person at that moment, Adia smirks and moves her arms to send a barrage of rocks at her sensei. Although he couldn't see, Kakashi could hear the 'wooshing' sound of the rocks being flung at him and dove into a hole he had just opened and closed it behind himself.

While he was in the ground, Kakashi to perform a sneak attack from below and started to tunnel in the direction the rocks at come just moments before; however, Adira was able to 'see' him underground and suddenly punched the ground with such force the floor of the arena shattered. Their friends sitting in the stairs and Kakashi himself were astounded at the strength and skill of the girl.

But Kakashi senses their time is almost up and decides to let loose on his student. Kakashi's left eye is blood red in color and has three other pupils forming a triangle around his middle pupil. Kakashi then uses his own earthbending to create a fissure in the ground and then creates a ball of lightening in his hand. Kakashi then slams the lightening into the fissured ground and sends them both hurtling toward Adira. Unable to dodge this sudden and vicious attack, Adira braces herself as she's sent flying into the air and slams into the stairs where their friends sit in horror and amazement.

"TIME!" yelled Dr. Timincin.

As the doctor yelled, everyone rushed over to the metal figure still laying prone in a humanoid shaped imprint in the stairs. But just as they were about to touch her, Kakashi yelled back, "Don't touch her! She's still probably still conducting extreme heat or electricity."

"We can't just leave her like this!" yelled Rembrandt.

Clearing the dust cloud, Kakashi jumps high into the air and glides over to them and says calmly, "I don't plan on it." He bends the metal away open and Adira is still knocked out.

"How did you…" Dr. Timincin trailed off when Kakashi pointed to his red colored eye. To which Dr. Timincin simply said, "Ahhh, got it."

"Uhggg," moaned Adira as she was starting to sit up.

"Adira are you okay?" asked Dorian.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," grumbled Adira, as she got up and stepped off of the metal that was currently laying on the ground.

"Hey you did great. Not only did we learn that the metal will withstand a ton of damage but apparently you created another subset of earthbending!" praised Dorian, which the others agreed with.

Adira shrugged with a had smile tugging on her lips, ""Yeah that's true. I mean once you get it, you got it. All I had to do was bend and control the particles of earth inside the metal and it was smooth sailing from there." Arturo's eyes widened in amazement at what Adira had said. This child let's nothing hold her back! Thought the older physicist.

Kakashi squatted down in front of the young girl and smiled behind his mask saying, "Hey you almost had me there! You did fantastic. Let's shake on it!"

Adira nodded and stuck out her left hand; to which Kakashi met and he hummed in happiness. Although a moment later, Adira felt a small but definite shock of electricity surge through her body. Yelping in surprise, Adira snatched her hand away from her sensei.

"You…you shocked me?!" exclaimed Adira.

"Yeah it was funny," Kakashi said nonchalantly and then he started to laugh uncontrollably.  
At seeing that his sister was about to launch herself at the avatar, Dorian grabbed her around the middle just in time. Unfortunately, this didn't stop the female earthbender though. Due to her feet still on the ground, Adira shoved her the heel of her foot into the ground and a pillar of solar stone shot up from ground underneath Kakashi and sent him flying across into the air. Then moments later, Kakashi hit the ground hard and was knocked unconscious is response.  
Due to this, it was Adira's turn to laugh. "Well," started Quinn, "Good to know you're not a sore loser."

"Loser? Never. Due to his unconscious body on the ground, I'm officially claiming the title of the strongest earthbender! MWAHAHAHAHA!" announced Adira, as Dorian released her from his grasp.

"So, let's get back to the coating of this to the machine," said Dr. Timincin.

At lunch, several of the picnic tables in the community cafeteria were shoved together so that their new friends were able to eat with them. At this picnic table were Arturo, Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, Zoe, Wendy, Derek, Alex, Dorian, Dr. Lisa, Sokka, Adira, Malcolm, and Joon. They were all listening in captivation and humor to Adira as she told the others about her discovery of metalbending.

Once she paused to sip her water, Malcolm asked, "So did you beat Kakashi?"

"If I had just another minute, I woulda beat him. But it doesn't matter, I'm the world's strongest earthbender!"

Sokka started to laugh a little bit as he ate a spoonful of broccoli and said "So…you lost. Yeah that's about right. Even you can't beat Kakashi!"

Adira started to rise from her seat but Zoe placed a hand on the young girl's shoulder to stop her. Adira reluctantly sat down again but harshly glared in Sokka's direction. Dorian chuckled and said, "Guys come on, it was only a game."

Quinn replied, "Uh, Dorian, no offense but the winning team never says that."

The occupants at the table started to laugh but laughed even harder when Dorian punched Quinn's arm in fraternal jest.

Despite Dorian not knowing that Quinn was his brother from another earth, the two Mallorys had become quite close and acted as if they had grown up together. The fraternal camaraderie the two had developed had not gone unnoticed by their friends.

While Quinn and Dorian were flinging harmless insults back and forth, a strange look crossed Adira's face. A look that didn't go unnoticed by Malcolm. "What's up Adira?" asked Malcolm.

"Harold's coming. He seems pretty anxious," answered Adira. Just as she answered Malcolm, Harold had just arrived and was bent over, panting with exertion.

"Pro…Pro…," Harold said in between pants.

"Calm down Mr. Lee. Whatever is the matter?" asked Arturo.

Nodding, Harold took a deep breath and said, "Professor, we've got a major situation! You and Quinn have to come to the lab now!"

At seeing the urgency in his eyes and hearing it in his voice, Arturo and Quinn were already moving and following Harold to the lab.

The others at the table didn't wait for an invitation and followed suit. As they all entered the lab, they were all greeted by Dr. Timincin, Romo, Naomi, Maggie, and Jason. At seeing the children here, Maggie belligerently asked, "What're they doing here?"

Before the adults could answer, Adira answered just as belligerently, "We're here because this concerns our life too! We can handle this stuff just as well, if not better, than you adults. Besides we wanna help."

"The kid's gotta a point. And besides if we kick them out, they're just going to ease drop anyway. I say let them stay," said Romo. To which, Naomi, Dr. Timincin, and Zoe all reluctantly agreed.

"Alright. So Harold, tell us. How bad is it? When can we expect the pulsar to hit?" asked Naomi.  
Harold hesitated for a moment but took a deep breath and said, "Look, I'm just going to say it. According to our practically endless research and calculations, the pulsar is going to hit the eastern seaboard in the next eight hours."

A collective 'what?!' resounded from Harold's news. And then Rembrandt asked, "How long do we have until it hits us?"

"Approximately, the next wave will hit in the next twenty hours," answered Harold.

"We just tested the metal today. Will we even have time to place it over the Q.E.D. in time?"

"We don't have a choice. We still have to be safe during the slide. That simply means that we must work harder in the next twenty hours than ever before," said Arturo.

"We can help," offered Sokka.

"Sokka…" Wendy started in protest; however, Sokka cut her off. "No mom. Adira was right. We're here, we're some of the strongest benders there are in the compound. You're going to need our help at least with the placement of the metal. Malcolm could airbend it into place and Adira could metalbend it into place!"

"And if she can't?" asked Jason.

"Kakashi could firebend the metal until it's malleable and I could cool it down," answered Sokka with confidence.

"Don't underestimate my skills! I can totally bend the metal. I did it once and I can do it again!" Adira exclaimed as she defended her skills.

"That makes sense," said Naomi, which caused Adira to smile a little bit.

"What if the Q.E.D. doesn't work? Are the devices ready?" asked Jason, for once showing some concern about their situation.

Arturo took point to answer the soldier's question saying, "The timer we've built are officially up and running. So if something were to happen you can escape with the timer to the 'Paradise World' as you all call it."

"Wait, you can input the coordinates?" asked Zoe.

"In our travels, we've learned a lot about sliding and how to refine our slides. One of which is how to store coordinates into the timer," answered Quinn.

"Great! So what're we waiting for? Let's get started," said Harold.

"Look before we go, I have to ask: with all of this rush are we sure everyone'll fit through the vortex?" asked Maggie.

"Captain Beckett, I can assure you that according to our calculations, the Q.E.D. machine is powerful enough to transport 400 people for at least one slide," answered Arturo.  
Wade, who was staring at Maggie, said, "I don't think that's the real reason Maggie asked that question Professor."

Arturo looked at Wade in confusion but Adira said, "Wade's right. I can feel through the ground that Maggie wasn't quite happy with that answer."

"What is it Captain. And tell the truth, as you can tell Adira will be able to detect any lies from you," said Dr. Timincin.

Unfazed, Maggie answered coldly, "I mean that if we're going to have a real chance, I say let's grab only a handful of good, strong people and high tail it outta here. Better a few make it than none at all."

Maggie's harsh announcement had all the occupants in the room, except for Jason, bristling; Arturo gave the captain a hard look before replying with a terse tone of voice, "Ms. Welles was right about you. You don't truly care about the 'mission' nor about these people. You'll live to fulfill your endgame of whatever that maybe and that's all that matters to you. Regardless, you are not qualified to be in command. And I don't think you will be after these people have left this world." Not waiting for her response Arturo left and was followed behind by the other lab technicians.

Punching the air, Sokka exclaimed with a big smile, "BOOM goes the dynamite!" As he was referring to the verbal blow Arturo just dealt.

"Look, we all have a lot to do in the next few hours, so let's do it," Naomi said as she sternly looked at Maggie. The others nodded and everyone separated to get their new orders for what was to come.

**|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|**

Over the next few hours, the bearded physics professor noticed his tall student was lost in thought. Although he was annoyed with the young man's lack of concentration, Arturo couldn't help but feel a paternal feeling overcome his annoyance. Thus, the older man approached Quinn and asked, "Mr. Mallory, I can't help but notice you're not all here. What's the matter?"

Shrugging of Arturo's concern, Quinn answered, "It's nothing Professor. I'll stay focused."  
Knowing his young student a little too well, Arturo tugged Quinn into an unoccupied room and closed the door behind them. "Now. Let's try this again, shall we? What's wrong my boy?" At seeing Quinn about to protest, Arturo raised a silencing hand into the air and said, "Now we both know your mind will simply wander once again."

Knowing Arturo wasn't one to back down once he had his mind set on something, Quinn took a deep breath and reluctantly answered, "Well…it's two things really. First, as usual, I'm concerned about the timers. What if they don't work? What if we have to slide to the so called 'Paradise World'?"

At seeing the deep trouble in Quinn's eyes, Arturo said, "Would that be so wrong? Quinn…if we have to slide with them, we'll slide. And if that is to be our fate, I'm still certain that you and I would be able to fix any sort of problem that might occur and we'll continue on as we've always done. You'll get us home, my boy. That I am quite certain. Now what's the second matter that haunts your mind?"

Quinn, who was smiling halfway through what Arturo was saying, frowned in embarrassment as to what he was about to say next, "It's about Dorian. I'm not sure what to say to him now since everything is going down so fast."

"You mean about you being a Mallory?" asked Arturo. Quinn nodded silently in response.

"Well my boy, I know this isn't what you're wanting to hear but you must keep in mind that Dorian isn't your brother," Arturo said as gently and kindly as he could. But he knew that Quinn didn't want to hear this and was proven right when the young scientist furiously retorted, "You think I don't know that already Professor?! I promise you that I haven't forgotten."

"Alright, alright. Calm down, now. But I must ask, what good does it do for Mr. LaLache to know that you're a Mallory as well if you're not to see each other again?"

Quinn's anger was knocked out of his sail when he heard Arturo's question. He couldn't deny that the question was warranted and he wasn't sure how to answer it. Luckily though, Arturo spoke up once again, "Look Lad, the only advice I can give you is to put your best efforts into getting him and his people to their new world. And if there's time, speak to him. But I would keep your…other world sibling relationship out of it. There simply wouldn't be any time and quite frankly you can't be certain how he'll take it on such short notice."

Although he didn't like it, Quinn did agree with the professor's assessment of the situation and simply nodded. "Thanks professor."

"Of course my boy. Now let's make Mr. LaLache and his peoples' dream come true." Despite himself, Quinn felt better and went back to work with Arturo.

**8:30 A.M. The Following Day…**

In the hours that followed, the compound was a hive of busyness. But reduce any sort of havoc that came with their busyness, Naomi, Romo, Zoe, Wendy, Alex, and five other trusted workers had personally assigned each and every member of the compound with a group assignment and a memo. The memo covered what the official plans were, the contingency plan with the timers, what to pack, where to come for the evacuation, and the individual group assignment numbers.

Once the memo was sent out, the emotions that filled the air of the compound was a mixture of joy and anxiousness. But their anxiousness was finally over, the travel to Paradise had finally come.

The compound had all gathered in the Evacuation Hangar. The Evacuation Hangar is a large closed structure technically situated behind the laboratory. There are three ways into the hangar, the first from the lab, the second -the longest way- is from the kitchen in the cafeteria, and the third is simply going down a series of hallways to reach the hangar. All of which were being used for the entire compound to file inside hangar. Once the people were inside the normally restricted area, they were surprised to see that the hangar was 1,000 feet long, 250 feet wide, and 177 feet tall. Scattered around this large hangar were large crates and medium sized machines. Also in this room, were wooden poles with red numbers pasted at the top and they were placed in different parts of the room. But the main attraction was a large machine sitting in the middle of the hangar.

In the middle of this huge space was a very large version of Quinn's original sliding machine. In front of this machine was a large platform and standing at the head of this platform were Captain Beckett, Dr. Timincin, and Romo Lampkin. Also on this platform were two tables situated on either side of the sliding machine. Standing at these tables were Wade and Derek standing at one table while Zoe and Rembrandt were standing at the second to pass out timers for each group as a contingency plan. Due to the vast amount of people needing to slide, there was to be three groups of twenty per slide and each group would receive a timer.

Once she was sure there were no stragglers, Naomi, Arturo, and Quinn joined Maggie and the others on stage. With a megaphone in her hand, Naomi spoke into the megaphone saying, "Good Morning everyone. The day for our mass Exodus has finally arrived. But it not without trials and sacrifice. But by the grace of God, we're able to leave this world thanks to four people: Wade, Rembrandt, Professor Arturo, and Quinn." At this statement a huge applause erupted from the grateful crowd.

Once the applause had died down, Naomi continued, "We'll never be able pay them back for their help but I've been told by Wade that the biggest 'thank you' we could give them is to make sure no one in the compound gets left behind. So adhering to this, last night a memo had been sent to everyone and a number was placed on the back that designated everyone to a specific group. Now you'll see that around the room are poles with red numbers on them. Go stand by the corresponding numbers."

Thankfully there was no fuss and the whole process didn't take long at all. Once everyone was standing next to their number markers, Naomi handed the megaphone over to Arturo. Speaking into the megaphone caused Arturo's voice to boom more impressively than usual, "For those of you who I have not met yet, I'm Professor Arturo. I simply want to implore upon the leaders of these groups, that if worst comes to worst and you don't get through this Q.E.D. Machine don't panic a timer will be given to you. However, whatever you do, **do not** advance the timer! The timer will open a portal on its own within five minutes of its activation and the coordinates for Paradise World has already been set. If you do advance the timer, you'll be like my friends and I and become nomads of the multiverse. With that said, let's start. Groups one through six please come up to the platform."

Taking heed to Arturo's warnings, the people waited anxiously for the first six groups to make their way up the short stairs and onto the platform. Once they, Quinn and Dr. Timincin had taken their stand on either side of the machine and started to flick the switches to turn on the machine.

Once the machine was fully powered, a portal that looked to have watery appearance but also had bright lights and beautiful colors and emitted a huge gust of wind appeared. Standing in front of the huge portal, Maggie had her arms spread out and yelled at the top of her lungs, "Group 1,2,3 Jump In!"

The three groups hesitated at first but swallowed their fear and jumped through. After the first three groups had gone, everyone had released their respective breath and soon a smooth pattern had settled in as more and more groups left. Over the course of two hours, more than half of the compound had already gone through. The next group contained Romo and he had hugged a lot of his friends already. Unable to admit it, he was worried about the travel and what he would do for his future. But Naomi was able to see through her old friend's mask of indifference. "No matter what happens Romo. Take advantage of new things. Your family would have wanted you to go on living."

"That's easier said than done, love," Romo said gruffly, as he tried continued to try and conceal his emotions.

"Well, say if you don't I'll let Adira have your hide."

"She already has. I already said goodbye to her and the others. You know what that fantastical brat said to me?" Romo said but continued with waiting for Naomi's response, "She told me, in no uncertain terms, that she'd make my paradise into a nightmare if I don't take care of myself."

Naomi couldn't help but laugh and said, "Well like Zoe said, the two of you are very much alike. Just promise me you'll take care of yourself, okay?"

"I promise. I'll see you on the other side love," Romo said.

As he stepped closer, Romo stuck out his hand to Arturo. "Well Arturo, thanks for everything. Good luck on your travels."

"You as well Mr. Lampkin. Oh and might I suggest, don't let anyone use you as a landing cushion. It's not pleasant," advised Arturo to a now laughing Romo. And with that said, Romo and three other groups jumped through the portal.

After those three groups, more and more groups had left. Within those groups, Vance, Kakashi, and Dr. Timincin had left. Only fifteen groups were left, but then something terrible had happened. The alarms had started to go off and soon the sound of many, many feet approaching the hangar could be heard.

"What's going on?!" exclaimed Wade.

"We're under attack!" exclaimed Jason as he and his group -who were all soldiers- left their position, took a defensive stance behind some of the crates and prepared to defend the others still here.

"Kids! You and the group come here!" yelled Naomi. The moment the lawyer yelled this, Dorian, Adira, Jett, Breana, Sokka, Joon, Lisa, Malcolm, Wendy, Harold, and Alex all made their way up the steps and behind Derek at one of the tables. While they were taking cover, the last two avatars within the remaining groups had moved some of the metal crates to the front of the room to shield them and the machine from harm. And with much speed, four more groups made it through the portal. However, it wasn't fast enough because the Royal Firebender Army made their way into the hangar.

"Stop in the name of the King!" yelled a man in his late 30s, with a square chin, soulless eyes, and in military attire.

"You and your king can go to shove it Rickman!" countered Jason, from his position behind a crate.

"This is treason! You had no right…" Rickman started but was interrupted by Adira. The young earthbender yelled back, "No you had no right! You all knew this planet was going to die but you kept everyone distracted!"

"ENOUGH!" shouted Rickman, "Prepare to die!"

With that, bullets and fireballs were shot everywhere. More people had gone through the portal until all that was left were Naomi's group and the soldiers and Jason.

"Fall back!" yelled Maggie. As they did the soldiers were given the order by Naomi to jump through. Although they were reluctant, Maggie pushed the majority through; however, just as Maggie was going to scold Jason for not jumping through yet a thin transparent energy bolt crackled through the air and hit the Q.E.D. machine.

Microseconds after it hit, Adira flung herself at a shell shocked Quinn before the machine exploded. The explosion of the machine was so powerful it shook the foundation of the mountain and caused some of the ceiling to fall to the ground causing dust the fill the room.

"NOOO!" cried Breana, her piercing scream broke Quinn out of his shock as he and Adira moved toward the others as Jason, Maggie, Rembrandt, and two other benders were returning fire from behind their barricade.

Once Quinn and Adira reached the others, Arturo asked, "Where are the last two timers?"

"I got ours right here," said Naomi.

"And I got ours Professor," said Quinn.

"All we have to do is wait five minutes, right?" asked Zoe.

"Yeah," replied Quinn.

"We don't have five minutes, you idiots!" yelled Jason as he reloaded his weapon but noticed the army was advancing on them. Deciding to bring the fight in closer the remaining two benders, started to run from behind their barricades and fought back with their water and air bending. This helped a lot, so much so that Alex and Derek decided to join the fight as well with their bending skills. Adira, Sokka, and Malcolm had also used their bending to fight but from behind the barricades.

The fight was bloody and raging on until the two avatars had both been killed.

However, just as they fell the timers had beeped and were being activated. Quinn was opening his portal when another thin and transparent energy bolt rounded the barricades and exploded the timer Quinn was holding. Luckily, Malcolm caught the tail of the energy bolt with his peripheral vision and was able to throw a blast of air at Quinn to shove him away from the oncoming explosion.

Staring in shock at the charred remains of the timer, Quinn and the others couldn't speak. None of them were able to comprehend what had just happened.

**...:TBC:...**


	10. Chapter 10

**Warning:** There be death ahead for some minor characters. Don't read if this is a trigger for you!

* * *

The sliders and the group were stunned silent as they stared in disbelief. They stared at the blackened shell of the timer in utter shock and dismay. But it was Jason who broke them out of their shock when he yelled, "Come on! We ain't dyin' today!"

"He's right! You guys'll just have to come with us," said Wendy. With that said Naomi nods in agreement and tries to open her portal but is unsuccessful. Naomi's timer wasn't able to open the portal due to a piece of shrapnel being lodged into its side. "It won't open! It won't open!" exclaimed Naomi. At the lawyer's distress, Quinn felt ice crawl down his spine, but before he or anyone else could do anything else a fireball exploded only a few feet away from their crouched position.

This sudden explosion brought the group's attention back to the war raging behind them. Derek had absorbed some metal and coated himself in a metal coating and was currently engaged in hand to hand combat with the enemy. Alex was using her lightening bending and fighting the enemy in an almost acrobatic style. Also fighting, but using their respective bendings, Adira, Sokka, and Malcolm held their ground behind the crates to protect their group from any stragglers of the enemy. Also behind with them were Rembrandt, Jason, and Maggie who were desperately trying to hold their own with dwindling ammunition that remained. And for the most part, they were all successful; however, none of them knew how long this would last especially with the two combustion benders they were fighting against.

The constant back and forth of their respective ammunition caused much disarray to the hangar. The walls that surrounded them had puncture marks and large holes due to the either side's projectiles. The hangar was filled with smoke, fallen rocks were everywhere, and crates were broken and half melted.

Not caring about the scenery around them, Adira flings more earth projectiles toward the enemy. The firebenders met this attack with several strong blasts of fire. The two elements exploded on impact with one another. However, when another wave of fire was shot toward them, Malcolm deflected it with a strong gust of wind. Like Adira's attack, this counter attack also exploded. But this attack was much more explosive and, due to its power, Malcolm was thrown back and accidentally bumps into Naomi.

Due to Malcolm bumping into her, Naomi drops the timer and it clatters away from her and then the back of the timer falls out. At seeing this, Quinn quickly scoops up the timer and starts to put the timer back together.

As Quinn's attempting to put the timer back together, Adira earthbends a larger and stronger barrier between her group and the remaining firebnding soldiers; however, a man with a third eye tattooed on his forehead combusts the barrier with a thin and transparent energy bolt.  
The barrier explodes while Adira and Malcolm try their best to keep any debree hitting anyone in their group. However, after the explosion of the barrier, a cry of pain shot out followed by a cry of anguish. From his position, Jason saw that a young woman, who also had a third eye tattoo on her forehead and had her hair pulled back into a long black braid, ran over to the motionless figure on the ground that was the combustion bender man and started to grasp his hand saying, "Pin! No! Don't you dare leave me Big Brother!" Sadly though, the man was already dead due to a small pebble that hit his third eye and sunk into his forehead. "No, Pin, noo..." sobbed the third eyed woman.

At seeing this distraction, Jason decides to grab another weapon that was laying on the ground a few feet away from their position. Without any warning at all, Jason makes a run for the weapon; however, the third eyed woman notices and becomes in rage. The third eyed woman then stood up from her dead brother's body and took a deep breath and aimed for Jason.

Unfortunately for the third eyed woman, Adira heard the deep breath and knew just what to do next. Due to her seismic sense and advanced hearing, Adira knew just where the third eyed woman was and metal bended a part of a metal crate toward the third eyed woman and had it wrap around the woman's head mere moments before the woman's combustion attack could leave the rage of her face.

This is turn caused a mild and gory explosion. One the sliders didn't have to thankfully stick around for because just as the explosion happened, Quinn was able to fix and open the portal. Without thinking, the sliders and Naomi's group jumped through bright vortex.  
Just as the portal closed behind the travelers with a rushing sound, Rickman and the last five soldiers stood astonished. "No. This can't be happening," whispered Rickman as he walked numbly over to where the escapees had just been seconds before.

"NO!" Rickman roared in fury. As he died down though, the Colonel received a message on his AT RF40 handheld radio saying that the pulsar has just hit and if he wanted to leave this world he better get back to base for his group's evacuation.

Still angry at the sliders for escaping his grasp once again, Colonel Rickman didn't say anything for a moment. But then he picked up his radio and spoke into it saying, "This is Rickman. I'll be there in the next ten minutes. Over."

At hearing their leader's statement to the dispatcher, one of the few remaining soldiers asked, "Sir didn't you mean 'we'll be there in ten?"

Instead of answering the man, threw many throwing knives at his five soldiers, which in turn pinned them all to the wall they were standing in front of at that moment. Then in the seconds that followed, Rickman threw five well aimed throwing knives into each of their throats; killing them all instantly. None of the soldiers truly had a chance to defend themselves.

Unfazed as to what he had just done, Rickman finally responded to the now dead soldier's question, "No. I meant what I said." And with that statement, Rickman walked out and headed back to his base.

**..:TBC:..**


	11. Chapter 11

**Epilogue**

Four weeks later, on another world in the court yard of a castle under construction two men were talking. The castle was being constructed in a bushy green meadow; however, past this area was thick black could be seen rising into the air. Faint but audible shrieks of fear and pain reached the castle's occupants ears. However, these occupants went about their day unfazed. One such figure was speaking to a visiting guest and led the guest to a table with two chairs.

"So what happened on your previous earth?" asked a deep voice figure, who was now seated in a chair that was barely wide enough for his wide frame.

"It was annihilated by radiation. Everything living –animals, humans, and vegetation— is now all dead," responded a middle aged man.

"Fascinating. But I am curious as for those who finally realized what was happening at the last minute. What if they tried to take shelter underground?" asked the deep voiced figure once again.

"It wouldn't work because the radiation of the pulsar penetrated every layer of the earth. Their efforts for underground shelter were certainly in vain," answered the cruel man.

"And what of those who did escape your grasp Colonel Rickman?"

Rickman's face contorted into the very image of hate at the question. "Those bastards escaped my grasp and I hope they're dead," Rickman spewed.

"Hm. Well what does your King think?"

"He doesn't care! He's just happy we've landed on this earth and the conquering of this planet has already begun," sneered Rickman.

"So if that's the case Rickman, why am I here? You asked for me specifically."

"Well General Kroturo, I've got a proposition for you and your kind," petitioned Rickman.  
General Kroturo, like his human double was a husky man with short brown hair and had trimmed looking beard and mustache. However unlike his human double, this Kromagg Arturo has a mouth full of sharp teeth and a scar running down the left side of his face.

The General sat back in his seat and said, "I'm listening."

Smiling wickedly, Rickman leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the table, saying, "I've met someone on this planet that is able to track wormholes and want these travelers as badly as I do."

"As interesting as that is, what does this have to do with my kind and I?" asked Kroturo.

"Well this woman is willing to trade her knowledge of interdimensional slides and the locations of the worlds she's already visited. But in return she'll need wants immunity from any sort of attack from the Kromagg Empire," answered Rickman.

"What about you King?" asked Kroturo.

"Let's just say, that I'm taking a leave of absence," replied Rickman.

Kroturo thought deeply and then looked at the human sitting across from him. "Alright. I accept your offer. Let me call my own Colonel and I will brief him on his new duties."

"Fantastic!"

No more than ten minutes later, a Kromagg soldier dressed in a hunter green military dress uniform. This Kromagg was slightly above average height, short brown hair, and intense blue eyes. But unlike most Kromaggs this one looked human all except for the scar across his face.

As he closed in on Rickman, the Kromagg stuck out his hand and greeted in a distinctive British-like accent, "Hello, I'm Colonel Stonemagg. The General was called away by our own King; however, he's already briefed me on everything."

"Stonemagg," greeted Rickman, "You know…I always get taken aback when I realize that you all can shapeshift from your normal Kromagg appearance to a human-like version of yourselves."

"Yes well it makes espionage so much more doable when your targets don't see what's coming," Stonemagg said with a slight chuckle. "Now the General said you had a partner in this deal?"

"Yes well she should be… Ah here she is!" Rickman said as he watched Quinn's female double approach them.

"Logan St. Claire, I'd like to introduce to you Colonel Stonemagg of the Kromaggs. Stonemagg, this is Logan St. Claire."

Simply looking at each other in acknowledgement, Logan and Stonemagg were silently sizing each other up. Then Rickman said once again, "Now Logan, shall we start tracking their wormhole?"

Looking between the two males, Logan's expression changed something that can only be described as a crazed obsession as she pulled out her own timer. "Let's get going boys! Who knows where we'll end up next."

**THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING**


End file.
